Loving and Losing
by PossumSoul
Summary: She learned long ago that loving was worth running the risk of losing it. A hard-won, uphill battle to open her heart and demolish those walls. But she just had her own son, the light of their new life together, stolen from them. With the fight to get her son back, those walls are coming back. (COMPLETE W/ EPILOGUE)
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: "Loving and losing is better than nothing at all."_

 _I've had this story in my head a very long time. I prompted it a while back during my first story. But I've fleshed out a lot more ideas and plot points for this story, that now, I feel I can write it all the way through without a problem._

 _Something to know about this story, I will start EVERY CHAPTER with a flashback, going in order of how they came to be where they are at the start of this story. I was going to put it in italics, but I've decided to test my mettle a bit and just try to write it in past tense. Let me know if it gets too confusing. I'll try to tie the flashback into the actual chapter as best I can._

 _Also, this story assumes that their wedding at the end of season six went out without a hitch, instead of the fatal gunshot wound to the heart that led to the show's demise that was the last fifteen seconds of season six. Their wedding went out without a problem, and Castle's kidnapping never happened. And this also ignores (kinda) the shows canon on their kids. It's Henry their son, not Lily their daughter. :)_

 _Summary: Rick Castle takes his wife, a pregnant Kate Beckett, and their three-year-old son to the park. When their son is kidnapped, their marriage is tested for the first real time. Will they get their son back and will their marriage survive?_

* * *

"I do." She said in a breathless voice over an exploding heart.

"By the power vested in me by the state of New York," The pastor raddled off, but she's already bouncing with excitement, "I now pronounce you man and-"

Not waiting any longer, she leapt forward and slammed her lips against him, both of them smiling into their first kiss and husband and wife. His arms went around her and pulled her in as he rocked her off to the side, drowning out the sound of the loud applause erupting behind them. She threw her arms around his neck and captured his lips in a deeply loving kiss, her heart soaring and exuding pure happiness, radiating it through her entire system.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Castle."

As those words hit her ears, she felt another tidal wave of giddy happiness crack through her like a lightning bolt. He pulled back with a bright, boyish, face-splitting smile, still holding her to him. "I love you."

Her smile split her own face in two, matching his. "I love you too."

* * *

Kate smiles to herself, feeling Henry swing her arm from below. She looks down with a smile, seeing him walk playfully in between her and his father, his head bobbing from side to side with playfulness as he swings the arms of his parents. Going to the park is one of his favorite things lately. He especially loves the swings.

Their anniversary is coming up, she thinks to herself as they enter the park. Rick looks down with a smile, down at his son, pulls up on Henry's arm, lifting him up off the ground. "Ragh!" He says, picking up Henry by the arm while Kate does the same so he's swinging by the arms in between them. Rick sets him down with a thud just as Henry lets out a loud, happy giggle.

Kate slowly leans down and takes Henry's coat in her hands. "Be safe, okay, gummy bear?" She says as she's tugging his coat tighter over his small body then going up to pull down and straighten his hat over his head. "And keep your coat on. I don't want you getting sick."

"Come on, mommy. You keep making all these rules, he's _never_ gonna have any fun." Rick says from above with a smirk.

Kate looks up over her shoulder with a deadpan stare. "Keep it up, daddy, and I'll make sure you get whatever he does if he doesn't keep his coat on."

"I'm fine, mommy." Henry interrupts his parents.

Kate looks back over at her son, "I know you are, Henry, and _that's_ because..." She says, straightening his coat against his shoulders, "you keep your coat on when mommy tells you, right?"

"I'll keep it on, mommy." He says in his three-year-old boyish tone.

Kate smiles lovingly, putting her hands over Henry's ears, "Love you, gummy bear." She tells him, smiling lovingly at her son.

"Love you too, mommy!" He says and scampers off toward the playground, immediately going toward the jungle gym.

Kate stands back up with an inward groan, feeling Rick's hand slide up against her back as she gets back to her feet. Being pregnant again is draining, especially when she already has a child to take care off. Using the 'two mouths to feed' argument for her dietary cheating only worked for so long with Rick before he called her on it. But now that they have Henry, she knows that she _actually_ has another mouth to feed. Kate steps into her husband's side, putting her arm around his back and letting him pull her in with his hand on her arm, both of them watching their son play.

Rick, watching his son smile, laugh and play, like they do as often as they can by coming here, is happier than he's ever been in his life. It feels amazing to be a father again, and to have a son. Raising Alexis was great, and he just knows he's going to have another chance at raising a girl again. But still, he loves that he's picking up action figures off the floor instead of dolls. Henry has his eyes, but his hair has a wave that he seems to have gotten from his mother, along with her nose.

Rick looks over to his wife, of what will be four years in just a week, seeing her smile softly, her hazel eyes gazing lovingly over at their son. She loves Henry so much. And she loves being a mother more than he ever anticipated. Having someone to gang up on him with seems to be her favorite thing to do lately. They ganged up on him just this morning after breakfast for a tickle fight. Well, not so much a tickle fight as a tickle mugging. He's usually able to put up more of a fight, especially knowing _exactly_ where his mother's most ticklish spots are. But Henry's too fast for him.

Rick leans over, pressing his lips to her temple, squeezing her arm. He can feel her relax in his arm, and after a moment, he pulls back with a smile. "Come on, let's get you off her feet." He says and starts walking her over to the bench that's off the paved walkway cutting through the park.

Kate rolls her eyes as she sits down next to him, cuddling herself into his side. "Rick, I'm four months pregnant. Not _crippled._ "

"Yes, four months pregnant with _my_ child. I have a vested interest in making sure you're comfortable."

"That's very sweet, Lancelot, but _our_ child is just fine without you carrying me around everywhere. I'm fine." She argues back, letting him put his arm around her.

"Don't pretend you don't love it, okay? I know that you started abusing your power whenever you were pregnant with Henry."

"I didn't do anything differently that you're not _offering_ to do now, Hun."

"I was testing out reverse psychology, see if it actually worked." He shrugs.

She laughs nodding her head. "Yeah, fat chance, Rick. In fact," She begins, running her finger in a pattern against his crossed leg, "I _think_ I just might be getting a craving for those rolls that place up in Atlantic City has. The ones with the honey that are all warm and fluffy." She teases.

"Yeah, I'm not falling for that one again. If you want me out of the loft so you and Lanie can gush over baby clothes, then just say so, Lieutenant." Rick says, taking her hand, pinching her wedding band with his thumb and forefinger. "You know, it's our anniversary next week."

She smiles, feeling a warmth in her heart. "Mmhmm." She nods. "You remind me every year, Hun."

"Well, you forgot the first time, remember?"

She's quick to defend herself. They've gone over this a thousand and one times. "I did _not_ forget! I got stuck in a meeting at 1PP and my phone was dead." She says, readjusting herself against the bench. "Besides... it's not like I didn't make up for it or anything."

Rick smirks, remembering that hot, intense, passionate night with a two month pregnant Kate Castle. He looks down to her stomach again. She's beginning to show a lot earlier than she did with Henry. With Henry, it was at least six months before she began to noticeably show. But their second child is coming in a lot quicker than Henry did. He takes her hand, entwining their fingers together. "You ready to do it again?" He asks in a soft voice.

She smiles, her eyes down to her lap before she turns them up to him. "Always."

He smiles warmly in return, leaning down and pressing a loving kiss on her lips. With a soft pluck, he leans back.

"We get the results back in two days." She says.

"You sure you want to find out early this time?"

"Well, Rick, last time, we got caught off guard, remember? We ended up having to take half of everything we bought back _and_ repaint the nursery."

Rick nods, "Alright, if you insist."

Kate looks back up at her husband, "You still think I'm having a girl?"

"I think..." He begins, looking down at his wife, who's looking up at him with an expectant smile, "that I'm the luckiest man on Earth."

Her smile brightens and lights up her features in an instant, holding his loving gaze for a moment before she lets her eyes drift shut and lays her head down on his shoulder. "You know, we could take Henry up to the lake house this weekend."

"He does love it up there."

"Yeah, we could..." She says, looking out toward the playground, shrugging her shoulders before looking back up to him, "invite my dad up, maybe even Ryan and Jenny. Give Henry a chance to play with Sarah Grace."

"Yeah, your dad does love to dote on Henry a lot." Rick says.

Kate chuckles, "Yeah, he loves being a grandpa."

"You know, I think Henry has more toys from _your_ dad than he does from his own dad."

Kate laughs again. "Well, isn't that the purpose of grandparents?"

"That, and dressing up my children in the strangest outfits while I'm at book signings."

"Oh, come on, Rick. Martha isn't that bad."

"Kate, I came home one day and Henry was dressed as a pink caterpiller Even _I_ felt embarrassed by that."

"He was three months old, Rick." She says, looking up at him.

"No need to defend her, Kate." He says, looking out toward the playground. "But the lake house does sound like a good idea. We could make a pretty good weekend out of it. Bring your dad along, my mother, his big sister. Maybe even get his Uncle Javi to come along."

Kate laughs, resting her head down on her husband's shoulder again, feeling pulled by a light sleep. After a moment, she feels his lips kiss her scalp lovingly, and she moves her head up to look up at him with a smile. She loves Henry with every fiber of her being, and he's changed her life immeasurably for the better, but he has the childlike energy of his father, which can be very draining, especially when she's four months pregnant. Henry loves to play, and she's had a long week at the precinct, so she's tired.

Rick loves being at home again with a child to raise. His new books after the Nikki Heat series are taking off, but he's staying at home as a stay-at-home dad, like he did with Alexis. When she married Rick, she never thought that she'd feel that kind of love in her life the day of their wedding in the Hampton's, that amazing, wholehearted, radiating happiness. Until she had Henry, that is. She loves her son, her family, more than anything else and wouldn't give them up for the world.

Her phone vibrates in her coat pocket and she inwardly groans, moving to answer it. Rolling her eyes, she puts her phone to her ear, "Beckett."

Rick watches her brow carefully for the familiar furrow. It's usually something that can be delegated to someone else over the phone. Ever since that blow out they had while she was pregnant, when she convinced herself to take the lieutenant's exam, she's had to incur more of a leadership role at the precinct, but is rarely out in the field. He still consults on cases from home when he can, even sometimes going down there with Henry to pay his uncles and Aunt Lanie a visit, but that's soon to change after she has their daughter.

He knows it's a girl, but she's adamant about not jumping the gun.

After a moment, her eyes drift shut. "Okay, I'll be right there." Beckett moans into her phone and slides it back into the inside pocket of her coat. "I have to go into work."

Rick groans on a sigh and rubs her back as she stands up. He was just beginning to enjoy the cool afternoon out in the park with his family.

"Henry!" Kate calls from the walkway. "Come on, gummy bear, we have to go!"

Rick stands up and looks out toward the playground, waiting to hear the protest from Henry. They just got here, after all. "Come on, bud, we've gotta go!" He calls out.

Kate leans out, scanning the playground. "You see him?"

There's a clench that goes into his throat like a bullet when he scans the playground and doesn't see the familiar sight of Henry's wavy air and red coat. "Henry?" He calls out, quickly making his way across the grass toward the playground.

"Henry?" Kate calls out over the rabble of other children, her heart starting to palpitate inside of her chest. "Alright, gummy bear, this isn't funny!"

Coming back around the playset, Rick looks across the playground at his wife. "Henry!" He calls.

This isn't happening. This isn't happening.

Kate spins around, her heart shuttering and shattering inside of her chest with scared, heartbreaking grief and panic, hot tears already falling down her face. " _Henry!"_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: As stated, I will be starting every chapter with a flashback of their time together, working my way up towards the start of the story. If it gets too confusing, I can just mark it in bold. Let me know. :)_

* * *

"Hey, Kate?" Rick called from the closet.

"Yeah?" Kate called back from the bedroom. Most of the clothes left were the ones she hardly wears. Over time, most of her regular outfits had migrated over to his place already.

"What's this?"

"What's what, babe?"

"This shoe box with the duct tape around it."

In an instant, her mind raddled as she dropped her clothes and ran out of the bedroom toward the closet off her living room, putting herself between her new husband and the top shelf, realizing what it is he had found. "Nothing."

Rick raised a brow, smiling knowingly at her. "Okay, it's _definitely_ not nothing."

"What! It's... it's _private._ I don't have to tell you everything."

Rick just narrowed his eyes then reached down and grabbed her left wrist, putting her wedding and engagement band in plain view, then raising his own left hand, showing his own wedding band to her. "Yes, you do."

Kate pursed her lips, flicking her eyes between her husband and her wedding ring. They're married now. And hiding this from him is not a good way to start off. "Fine." She said, raising her brow and moving her head back to look down her nose challengingly at him. "But you have to _promise_ me... not to let it go to your head."

Rick's eyes moved about around her, "I'm not promising that."

Kate sucked her teeth before rolling her eyes and turned around, grabbed the shoe box off the top shelf and handed it to him. She watched for a moment as he pulled the tape off the sides of the box and took off the lid. His brow knitted in curiosity before he set the lid down and took the book out. His eyes then moved up to her, his smile starting to perk. "I stood in line for an hour."

Rick's eyes widened in an instant as he dropped the box to the floor and opened the front cover, seeing his trademark signature. "Wha... how have you never told me about this?"

"I-I..." She hesitated, "didn't want you to realize that you were right."

Rick shook his head, doing a brief doubletake before looking back at her with a half-smile. "Right about what?"

Kate bit the inside of her lip before speaking. "Only hardcore Castle groupies read Hell Hath No Fury."

Rick's smirk turned slowly into a full Chesire grin, his brow lowering knowingly. "So you stood in line... for an hour... _just_ to get a copy of Storm Front signed... by me."

Kate nodded her head, tightening her lips together nervously, waiting to get slapped in the face by his overinflating ego. "It was a rough time in my life, and you... might have helped me realize that the good guys could always find a way to win in the end. And... where I was, trying to cope with my mother's death... that's what I needed. So, not only did you help me close my mother's case by becoming my partner, but you also... might have helped me get through her death by becoming my favorite author."

Rick's smile softened. "And you just married him."

Kate looked back up at him, looking at his soft, easy gaze, her muscles unclenching with a smile. She snaked her arms around his neck, slowly stepping into him. "I was _not_ a Castle groupie."

"No, that would be a little weird considering you _are_ a Castle now."

* * *

Kate and Rick both storm out of the elevator once the doors are open enough, both their hearts pounding and aching. Kate immediately finds Ryan, Espo, and LT at their desks, all jumping up at the sound of the elevator door opening. "Hey, Beckett," Ryan says with his phone in his hand, "I just sent out the amber alert, Tori's pulling traffic cam footage from the park, and the FBI are dispatching agents now. They should be here any minute."

Kate comes to a frantic stop, her legs still unable to sit still, her mind flooded with images of her son and her arms desperately aching at the need to feel him in them again. "Okay," She says, running a hand through her hair, "what else?" She asks, pacing in a fast circle.

"Beckett," Esposito starts from beside Ryan in a calm voice. She stops and looks over at him. "You _sure_ Henry didn't just wander off?"

"Yeah," Ryan starts, "Sarah Grace did it last year when Jenny's sister took her to the park. She was gone for nearly twenty minutes before we found her playing with someone's dog at the other end of the park."

Rick is quick to dismiss the theory. "No, Henry knows better than that." He says in a shaky voice. His whole body is trembling. This can't be happening again. He's already had to go through this once in his life. The thought of this happening to his defenseless three-year-old son is making him sick to his stomach.

"We've been taking him to that park since he was out of diapers. He knows better than to wander off." Kate says with a deep tremble in her voice as she paces restlessly in front of her husband.

"We were only there for... a few minutes at most before we had to leave." Rick says.

"I should have been watching him." Kate says, an emotional quake coming into her voice.

Rick takes this chance to take a step forward, putting a soothing hand on her back. "We've taken Henry to that park dozens of times, Kate. We-"

"I'm his _mother_ , Rick!" She says, spinning on a heel to look at her husband. "It's my job to make sure this doesn't happen."

"We can't assume the worst right now, Kate." Rick says in an easing voice, putting his hands on her arms.

It's then that Ryan interrupts. "We have every cop in the city looking for him, Beckett. Now, did you guys already search the park?"

"Of course, we did. Four times." She says, still trying to work the shake out of her voice.

"What about the other parents?" Esposito cuts in. "Did you guys notice anyone out of the ordinary? You said you guys go there all the time. Did you guys notice anyone new coming around?"

"No, we..." Rick says, feeling his wife pace her way out of his grasp, feeling a deep stab of guilt hit his gut, "we usually let him play on his own as much as we can."

"He doesn't like it when we hover." Kate says from a distance away, her hands tucked into her back pockets. "He likes to be independent as much as he can."

Rick feels himself huff out a silent chuckle. "Something he got from his mother." He says, looking at the floor as he feels a very heavy smirk push its way onto his face. It's only a second before he feels her eyes boring into him from a few feet away. He just looks back down to the floor, feeling small.

"Alright, well," Ryan starts again, looking down at his phone, "we've called the press to get Henry's face out there, but... they need a picture."

Kate stops her pacing, her expression going blank as she turns and heads out of the bullpen, over to her office on the other side of the bullpen and opens the door. She stops at her desk, reaching down to the picture frame she has sitting in front of her wedding picture and the picture of them at the hospital, the first day Henry was brought into the world, with the tiny, seven-pound two-ounce baby boy, with her in the hospital bed and Rick sitting on the side, both of them looking down lovingly down at their newly born son.

The frame she has in the center is the one of just her and Henry, the day she first surprised them with the lake house. It was just after his third birthday, so it's one of the newest ones. His hair is a bit longer. He has his bright, carefree smile shining across his face, sitting next to her on the porch swing outside. She's leaning down and hugging him from above while he has one arm around her neck. He was so excited about getting in the water. He's always so excited about learning new things.

They can easily crop her out of this picture.

With a heavy heart, she turns the frame over and pops out the back, carefully taking the picture out and setting the frame back down on her desk, then moving back out to the bullpen, where Ryan and Esposito are still standing at their desks, while Rick is looking down at his phone. "Here." She says and hands the photo to Ryan. "It's the best picture I have."

Rick shoves off LT's desk and leans over, looking down at the photo she handed them. He remembers that day, their first day up at the lake house she surprised them with. "The first day at the lake house?" He asks, looking back up to his wife.

Her eyes are glazed over, blank, hollow as she nods her head, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "You can crop me out of the picture. Get it out to the press as quickly as you can. Just make sure I get it back."

Ryan nods, looks between her and Rick, then moves out of the bullpen without another word, picture in hand.

"Now, I hate to be the one to suggest this," Esposito starts after a moment of tense silence between her and Rick. "But can you two think of anyone who might do this?"

Kate scoffs and shifts her weight. "Javi... there are _hundreds_ of people I can think of that might have it out for us, okay? How does any of this help get our son back?"

"He's just trying to help narrow it down, Kate." Rick says, stepping in front of her again with a worried arch in his brow.

"Rick, I _promised_ that I wouldn't let my job get in the way of being his mother." She says, her heart aching. "I _promised_ him that I'd always protect him and that _nothing_ would ever happen to him. That's what I told him, Rick."

"You're the _best_ mother Henry could ever have, Kate." He says in a low voice, taking a chance and cupping her cheek with his hand. "We're gonna get him back."

"I want him back, Rick." She says, the desperate, painful heartache coming out full force, grasping the sides of his jacket. "I need my son back. I need him in my arms."

Rick soothes over her cheekbone with his thumb, softly caressing her as a stray tear leaks out from her lashes. "We're gonna get him back, Kate."

"Guys," Esposito says from the side. Rick and Kate both separate and look over to him. "We have every uniform in the city on the lookout, and the FBI should be in here any minute. So... what are your orders, Lieutenant?"

Kate lets out a sigh, hardening herself, icing her nerves and steeling her resolve, strengthening her heart and her emotions against everything. It's a way she hasn't felt since before she put this ring on her finger. "Go over every case Castle and I have closed over the past ten years, starting with anyone who has a history of violence towards children or has been charged with kidnapping of any kind, then go to anyone who's killed more than once. LT, you go see what you can find on the traffic cam footage. Henry was wearing a red coat with blue seams down the arms and a green hood, blue jeans, and red tennis shoes with black laces and white socks."

"And the press?" Esposito asks.

"We'll wait for the FBI to show up to hold a conference, but make sure Ryan gets Henry's picture out to them. Have them run it as often as they can and get the lines open." Kate orders. Both Esposito and LT step away from their desks and head out of the bullpen to do their respective tasks.

After a moment, her eyes find the worried gaze of her husband. "Kate?" He asks quietly, stepping up to her again.

She looks up at him, feeling like a shell, the only thing her mind focusing on is her son. "I'm gonna need you to talk to the press for me."

"Yeah, I'll take care of it." Rick says quickly and puts a hand on her side. "Kate, we're going to get through this, okay? But I need you by my side to do it."

"I'm not stopping until I have my son back, Rick." She says in a low voice.

"And neither am I, Kate." He says with a pinched brow, shifting his weight. "You're not doing this alone. Henry's _our_ son. He's all I can think about too, Kate. But he's not the only one I'm responsible for right now." He says, softening his brow as he puts a hand on her stomach.

Her eyes go down to his hand, over the child they have on the way, and her shell begins to crack. She swallows the rising emotions, feeling her eyes burn as the feeling of her son in her arms flashes in the memory of her muscles. "I just love Henry so much."

"So do I."

"Lieutenant Beckett?" A male voice says on her side.

Realizing the FBI is finally here, her mind switches in an instant and she turns, but is frozen when she sees whose flashing their badge at her. "Will?"

Sorensen smirks and keeps his badge facing the two. "Supervisory Special Agent Will Sorensen with the FBI. This is my team." He says, motioning toward the agents behind him before flipping his badge closed and slipping it back into his breast pocket. Sorensen looks over his shoulder. "Go ahead and get the phone set up. Val, I'll let you know when we're ready for the press."

"Yes, sir." The straight-haired blonde chirps sternly and moves passed him, along with a few other agents following in tow.

Rick looks over to Sorensen, seeing him smirk over at his wife, clasping his hands in front of him. "Long time, no see, Beckett."

* * *

 _A/N: Originally, I wasnt going to add Sorensen as the FBI agent, but as I fleshed out more of the story, I felt it would be a nice throwback. Originally, I was going to have someone more 'Aaron Hotchner'- esque, but Sorensen adds more to the story._

 _Thanks for everyone who reviews and followed. I hope I'm capturing the heartache and emotions okay. Hope it doesn't feel too empty. Let me know. :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: This flashback is one I've had in my head since I started writing for this fandom. This one and the next one. Let me know what you think! Keep those awesome reviews coming in! I don't exactly know how many chapters this will end up being, but I know how the story arc is going to go. So, keep them reviews pouring in, keeps me motivated to keep writing! :)_

* * *

Rick carefully drew the straw across the foam, drawing a smile into the circle on top of the latte, then poked two small dots for eyes in the top. Kate's been hiding in the bathroom all morning. He assumed something must be wrong when he knocked on the door and asked if everything was okay, then went about surprising his bride of ten months with a gourmet breakfast of latte art and french toast. He has the skillet heating up as he put the finishing touches on her latte.

It's a few minutes before he heard movement in their bedroom and looked up to see her, clad in her grey bathroom, tied loosely across her slender frame, with her slippers scrapping across the hardwood. He looked up briefly and saw her slowly meandering her way out with a blank expression on her face. "Hey, honey." He chirped, turning around and grabbing the eggs from the fridge. "Made you a latte." He pointed with the spatula in his hand.

"I-Is it decaf?" She asked in an airy voice.

Rick chuckled, "Why on Earth would it be decaf? You know how I feel about that stuff."

"I-I..." She started again, still some distance away near the couch, "I need decaf."

"There's a time and a place for decaf coffee, Kate." He said, looking up to her with a smile, "Never and in the trash. Now, come on, sit down. I worked really hard on this." He said, pointing at the stool with his whisk as he starts scrambling the eggs.

"Rick," She breathed, calling his attention. He looked up to her with a concerned brow, seeing a bit of a worried twinge in her brow, and it's only then that he sees that she's holding something loosely in her hand. "I'm pregnant."

His heart split into four different places, his nerves kicked in high gear as he dropped the bowl with the eggs onto the floor. He quickly shot out of the kitchen, losing his footing in the eggs as he rounds the corner, and then knocked his bare toe against the leg of one of the stools as he stumbled out of the kitchen. " _Agh!"_ He grimaced, hopping on one foot over to her.

Her hands reached out gingerly, steadying his balance.

He quickly regained his footing and bit down on his tongue to keep the excitement from boiling over in his hyperdrive system. "You-you-your sure? I-I-I mean we weren't trying or anything and-"

He's stopped by her holding the pregnancy test in front of him. He looked up to her eyes, still seeing her brow pinched, her eyes wide. "I'm pregnant, Rick."

He flexed his whole body to keep from jumping and tightened his lips. "This-this i-is a... a _good_ thing, right?" He hesitantly asked, "because I'm holding back so much excitement right now I'm... quite _literally_ about to scream."

Her eyes moved up to him after floating aimlessly around his front, looking up at him with wide eyes. But after a moment, her tense shoulders relaxed and her face light up into a bright, face-splitting smile. "I'm pregnant!"

He finally let the smile break across his face and threw his arms around her, hoisting her up in his arms as she threw her own arms around his neck, vicing his waist with her legs hugging him, both of them giggling very happily in each other's ears. They're having a child. They're going to be parents together. Kate moved from her face being buried in the crock of his neck to lean her forehead down on his, her heart fluttering with joy and pure, unabashed happiness, stealing a kiss from his smiling lips, still being hoisted in the air.

"I'm pregnant."

* * *

After a long few minutes, Rick, Kate, and Sorenson disperse in different directions; with Kate going into the tech room to review traffic cam footage, Sorenson going into the conference room to get his team set up, and Rick finding his way into the kitchen.

Why is this happening to them? Right now, he'd give anything to have it be him going through this just to spare his own little boy from having to deal with this. Henry's too young, too innocent, too perfect to have to go through this. He loves his son so much. And he's having a surreal amount of fun raising him, getting to explore who he is and learning about the son he helped bring into the world. But all of that pales in comparison to what she thinks of Henry. To Kate, Henry is her whole world.

He knows how much she loves Henry. She was there for absolutely everything. She loves being his mother more than anything else. It was the kind of parent he wished in another life he could have found in Meredith for Alexis. Kate's an amazing mother. She loves her son more than anything else, and up until about two hours ago, she was ecstatic about being pregnant again and getting the chance to be a mother to a helpless little baby again. Henry may only be three years old, but he's going up much too fast for her liking.

But right now, he can see her changing. She just had someone she loves taken from her, and she's dealing with it the only way she knows how. And Sorenson being here isn't any kind of help either. That judgemental asshole is sure to only make the effort to bring Kate back that much harder. Rick continues his pacing, his blood silently screaming out in anguish, meandering around the kitchen as the door flies open.

He quickly spins around at the sound, seeing Alexis flying through the door, followed by his mother following close behind her. "Dad, what's going on? I got an amber alert on my phone in class saying Henry had been taken."

Rick steps up to her on shaky legs, putting his hands on her shoulders. "We don't know yet, Alexis."

"What happened, Richard?" Martha asks in an emotionally soiled voice.

Rick lets out a tense breath and painfully puts himself back in the park. "Kate and I took Henry to the park this morning. We let him go play on his own like we've done for a while now, and we looked away for... a minute maybe before Kate got a call from the precinct and we had to leave. But when we went to get Henry, he..." He says in a trembling voice, his imagination starting to kick in violently, "he was gone."

"Oh..." Martha whimpers, putting her hand over her mouth and turning away from them as Alexis stares up at her father with a tightly knitted brow.

Alexis loves her little brother. It was more lonely than she ever cared to admit, growing up as an only child. Growing up around other kids who had siblings, she always felt she missed out on a lot of things as an only child. Henry's such a great kid, she even has a picture of him sitting on her lap at his third birthday party as her screensaver on her phone. "Well, have you gotten any kind of call? Any kind of ransom demand? I mean, Henry wouldn't just wander off, he knows better than that." Alexis rattles off.

"I know, Alexis," Rick says, squeezing her shoulders. "I still need to get in touch with our accountant and have him ready to drain our accounts if need be, and the FBI is already here, ready to trace the call if it comes in. The guys are already working on going through all our old cases looking for anyone who might have the means to do something like this."

"You really think that someone is holding a grudge against you and Kathrine over a case you worked on, Richard?" Martha asks with burning eyes.

"Kate and I have closed a lot of high profile cases over the years, mother. And right now, going through those is our best bet for a suspect."

"Well, what about Senator Bracken?" Alexis cuts in. "If anyone should be the first person in your mind, it should be him, right?"

Rick's mind darkens, grief and longing swirling around in his stomach, knowing it's the one person his wife is thinking of. "As far as we know, Bracken is being kept in solitary in Winterkill Correctional, where he has been for the past four years. Right now," Rick says on a hard sigh, forcing his mind to stay focused, "we can't let our imaginations run wild. Henry needs us to stay focused." He says, mostly to himself.

Martha lets out an emotionally charged sigh as she paces through the kitchen. "Well," She says in a wavering voice. That little boy is the happiest little boy she's seen since her own son was that age. "What about Kathrine? Who is she handling all this?"

Rick's throat closes, his eyes going out the window, where he sees Sorensen on his phone, standing in front of LT and Ryan. He can see through the bullpen into her office from here, and it's empty. "Henry's her whole world, mother. He's... he's the best of both of us. And right now, she's dealing with this the only way she knows how. And that's by pushing me away."

"Richard, you two need to work through this together." Martha argues, stepping up to him. "Henry needs _both_ of you on this."

"Mother, I'm ready to do absolutely whatever it takes to get my son back." He angrily spits through clenched teeth. "But he's not the only one I have to worry about right now. I-I..." He says, another wave of emotions rising up his throat. "I can't lose my son, my wife, _and_ the child we have on the way all at once. Because if we lose Henry... that's exactly what's gonna end up happening."

"Dad, Kate's stronger than that. You both are." Alexis says. Rick sadly shakes his head, tensing his jaw. "Now... have you given any thought to the idea that this could have something to do with your dad?"

His heart quivers inside his chest. "I can't say that the thought hasn't crossed my mind, sweetie."

"Ugh..." Martha groans from a distance. "That man has always been far more trouble than he's worth."

"But if it does have something to do with my father, something tells me he already knows about it and will be working on a way to get me involved that will include me having to lie to my wife." Rick says, running his hand through his hair as he paces away from his mother and daughter.

"Richard, you and Kathrine will get through this and you will get Henry back."

"Mother," He says and shakes his head. "Kate's been in love with Henry since he was just a positive result on a pregnancy test." He tells them, turning around with sadness in his eyes. "The first thing that she ever told him, the very first thing that she ever said to our son the first time she had him in her arms... she promised him that she'd never put anything ahead of being his mother. The first words Henry ever heard his mother say to him was that she'd always be his mother above all else... because she knew what it was like to have a mother leave a child behind. She made that promise to him and she's never looked back. And now... I-I can't lose my wife too."

* * *

Kate stands in front of the monitor in the tech room, her fingers clacking away at the keys as she searches through the traffic cam footage from the park. LT couldn't find anything, but he probably just has the time wrong. They left the loft ten minutes before nine on foot and it takes about twenty minutes to get to the park from the loft.

There are a few vehicles that feel out of place in a footage from around the time she and Rick were sitting in the park. When she checked her phone to see what time she got the call, it was just after nine fifteen, which has her scanning two-minute loops of different angles of intersections near and around the park. After a long minute of concentration, her instincts start to pick up something on the old, nineties model red utility van. It's passed through all of the frames, like it's making circles around the park. She clacks away at a few more keys to cue up more footage to try and follow it until the door opens.

Her eyes flick over, but she feels annoyance flood her. Out of all the FBI agents employed by the federal government, they had to send him. "Find anything?" Sorenson asks.

"There was a red utility van making circles around the park at the time Henry went missing. I'm working on getting plates now, but the plastic covering it has over the plate is making it difficult." She says, looking at the dusty protective plastic covering on the license plate. She can barely make out any of the letterings in the grainy footage.

She sees Sorenson nod out of the corner of her eye as she grabs a still. "We'll have our techs go over it, see if they can't get anything."

Kate just lets out a small sigh and goes about trying to track the van's movements around the time she got the call from the precinct.

She can feel Sorenson's eyes on her after another moment. "You look good, Beckett."

Kate rolls her eyes, quite obviously.

"So... you and Castle, huh?" Sorenson starts.

"Ugh," Kate groans, "back off, Will. We're married, okay?" She says, looking over to him with narrowed eyes. "Just in case you didn't glean that from the fact that you're here to help us find our son."

"No, no, I understand, Beckett." Will says, raising his hands in surrender. "But, I have to admit, I can't say I'm all that surprised."

Kate just looks at him blankly before turning back to the screen in front of her.

"But," He shrugs, "I always thought that it be more of a... quick fling before he got distracted and moved on."

"Are you in here for a reason, or did you just come in here to insult my husband?" She asks, not bothering to look at him.

"I didn't mean it like that, Beckett."

Kate looks at him for a second before he sees a slight arch in his brow.

"I mean... he's clearly not the guy I met ten years ago."

"Well, it _was_ in his wedding vows." She cracks, only being half sarcastic in the statement. Him becoming a better man was actually in his wedding vows.

She hears Sorenson breathe a small chuckle, "You know, you told me you didn't want to have kids when we were dating."

"With you." She says on a sigh, looking up at the screen. "I didn't want to have kids with you is what I said, Will."

"Listen, Beckett, I'm sorry that you're going through this. But-"

"Then what the hell are you doing just standing here?" She spits, looking sideways at him. "This isn't just another innocent, defenseless three-year-old you're looking for, okay, Will? This is my _son._ And the absolute _last_ thing I need from you is you coming in here just to insult the love of my life then try to bring up the fact that I didn't want to start a family with you, okay? So if you're not here to help me find Henry, then you need to _get_ out of my way and let me do my job!"

"Beckett!" Sorenson says in a stern voice. "I'm here to help. We're getting Henry's picture out to the press now and I have our media liaison preparing a statement for you and Castle to read. And I don't need to tell you that in any kidnapping case, one of the most important things is to make sure the parents stick by each other. I didn't come in here to insult your husband, alright? If _you_ married him, then whatever you two have must be real, so..." He trails off.

Beckett lets out a small sigh, seeing her attack was a bit unwarranted, but not being guilty for it. "It is. He's given me a better life than I could have ever hoped for. We'll be married four years next week, and... Henry's pretty excited about being a big brother." She says, putting her hand soothingly over her next child.

Sorenson lets out another small chuckle. "How far along?"

Kate turns back to the screen, "Eighteen weeks."

"You know what it is yet?"

"We get the results back in two days. Rick's convinced I'm having a girl, but I think that's only because I promised him he could name Henry if he turned out to be a girl."

"And what do you think?" Sorenson asks casually.

Kate taps the keyboard again, focused eagle-eyed on the screen. "I think this van is what was used to kidnap my son."


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Yeah, you're not really supposed to like Sorenson in this story. :)_

* * *

Rick drew in a deep breath as he stepped through the door into their home. He had told her that he'd run late via text earlier that night, being kept over with Gina, discussing his last of the Heat series. But he had stopped off to pick her up something, something to suffice until it actually comes into the world. Considering how emotional they were at that first ultrasound, he figured it would be a thoughtful gesture.

But as he closed the door, the first thing he noticed was the lack of life to the loft; no lights, no sounds, no TV, no beautiful wife waiting curled up in the corner of the couch with a book, unwinding for the day, nothing. He hummed curiously to himself as he went through the side door to their bedroom, hanging his coat on one of the hooks as he passed it. When the bed came into view, even in the darkness he could recognize her form, tucked under the covers. "Kate?" He whispered over to her.

She didn't respond verbally, but he could hear the sheets rustle at the sound of his voice.

"Honey, you awake?" He asked her, toeing himself out of his shoes at the edge of their bed, setting the picture frame down onto his nightstand.

It's a long moment before the softly breathing huddled mass of sheets responded in a soft, low voice. "Yeah."

With his worry starting to get to him, he laid down on his side, seeing she's facing away from him, the covers drawn all the way up almost over her head. "You must be tired if you're already in bed this early."

After a moment of waiting for a response, his worry is doubled when she doesn't respond.

"I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the precinct today, Gina was droning on all day about bureaucratic garble." He feigned casualness, making up an offhand excuse for not being there to prevent whatever it is that's bothering her. She still didn't respond to him, and it's then that he can feel her distance, her walls. "Kate, is something wrong?" He started.

She drew in a long breath through the covers but didn't let it out.

And when she didn't respond, before they were married, he might have just let it go. But they're married now, he wouldn't be fulfilling his responsibilities, his vows if he just let this go. "Honey, what's wrong?" He asked, putting a hand over where her shoulder is underneath the covers.

After a moment, he watched her turn over, her eyes void and empty as she flipped off the covers, reached her arms out and wrapped them tightly around his chest, rolling him onto his back and tucking herself snuggly into his side, burying her face into his pec. "Just..." She began in a small voice, "just hold me."

He let out a long breath, not hesitating to snake his arms loosely around her and hold her to him.

"Tighter." She murmured.

He moved his arms tighter around her, squeezing her securely into his side, rubbing her back soothingly with one hand. When he felt her give his chest a long squeeze, he spoke. "Whenever you're ready, hun."

She sniffled against his chest before she reached up and swiped at her cheek. "We got called to a scene this morning... double murder, suicide."

He felt his heart constrict, a painful twinge of guilt going coldly into his system knowing he should have been there. But he stayed silent and let her continue.

"A mother and father... and a two-month-old infant." She said in a shaking voice. He drew his arms around her tighter as the words hit his ears. "From what we could get from the scene, the father had come home... and the mother had stabbed him in the neck with a paring knife, then went into the infant's room and slashed her wrists... because she had smothered the infant in its crib."

His entire body went cold at her tale, his grip on his wife going slack in an instant.

"I guess the baby was crying so much and the mother just snapped." She says over the first wave of tears.

She sniffled before continuing, "It was the worst scene we'd ever been called to, Rick." She said, her emotions coming through clearly in her voice. "I had to send Ryan home straight from the scene just so he could hold Sarah Grace, he was so emotional. Lanie had tears going down her face the entire time. I-I..." She trailed off, burying her face down into his shoulder, "her eyes were still open, Rick. Just... staring off into space with her mother sitting on the floor, right there next to the crib."

Her body wracks with a silent sob as he continues to run his hand down the dip of her spine.

"How could someone do that to their own baby?" She asked, her voice broken with tears.

He let out a long breath and looked over to the nightstand, quickly reaching over to the picture frame he'd brought home. He brought the frame down to his stomach, where they could both see it. He heard her sniffle and saw her move her head to lay her ear down to his chest so she could see what it is he was holding. He felt her face light up with a sad smile. "You know what that is?" He asked her.

Her fingers reached out to the picture of their first ultrasound, touching the glass in the center. "That's our baby."

He felt a smile softly perk at the edges of his lips. "That's our baby."

She sniffled again, petting the tiny little spec in the center. "It looks like a little gummy bear." She said emotionally.

He softly chuckled, a sad joy warming his system. "And that's our little gummy bear, isn't it?"

She giggled from her throat, her fingers pausing against the glass of the frame. "That's our little gummy bear."

* * *

After ordering Ryan and Esposito to go and run down the name off the red van she nailed down from the traffic cam footage, she found herself in her office with Lanie, who had come up just ten minutes ago from across town, having to race through as much traffic as New York could muster to get to the precinct. Kate sits in the corner of the couch that's sitting against the wall of her office, with Lanie, who they all consider Henry's aunt, feeling emotionally closed off. For now.

"I can't imagine what he must be going through, Lanie."

Lanie tries her best to reassure Kate, even over her aching heart. "Henry's a strong kid, Kate."

"He's _three_ -years-old, Lanie." She urges back. "He's an innocent, defenseless, helpless child and he's counting on his mommy to come get him." She continues, her voice starting to constrict with emotions. "Just like I always promised him I would."

"The guys are running down a lead now and I'm sure the FBI will find something. Not to mention, you and Castle being on this. If there are two people who can figure this out, it's you two."

"Lanie..." Kate shakes her head, looking upward through her tears, "we have... _nothing_. The owner of that van didn't have any history of violence towards children and his only record is an arrest for solicitation of a prostitute twenty years ago. And if we don't find anything from our old cases... then the chances of me ever seeing Henry again drop to near zero."

"Don't get wrapped in the odds, sweetie." Lanie tries. "We all love Henry. And I don't have to remind you of how far Henry's daddy will go to get him back."

Kate rolls her eyes to herself. "He's too worried about me to stay focused on Henry."

"Oh, come on, Kate." Lanie argues.

"Henry is all that matters right now, Lanie." She says coldly, getting to her feet slowly. She moves over to her desk and takes up the photo that Ryan gave back to her just before he left to run down their lead, her defenses being both strengthened and brought down by the sight of her son's smile. "My little gummy bear is out there somewhere, Lanie." She says, her voice squeezed again by a rising tide of emotions. "And I need him back."

* * *

Rick flips open another file of one of their first cases, among the large heaps and piles of files, boxes, and papers still in the process of being brought up from evidence and quickly speed reads. He's stressed, worried, and above all, he just needs his son back.

But after a moment, he flips the file closed just as Sorenson steps through the door, remaining silent as he paces around the table. "Find anything?" He asks.

"Not many of our cases involved children, so there's not many to choose from that would fit the profile of someone willing to harm a child, so... no, I haven't found anything."

"And you can't think of anyone outside of the cases you've worked that might be holding a grudge?" Sorenson asks, twirling a pen around in his fingers.

"No one smart enough to know exactly where the blind spot for the traffic cameras are." He answers, flipping open another file.

He sees Sorenson nod out of the corner of his eye. "I heard that you guys closed Beckett's mother's case." He says after a moment of silence between the two, either trying to be friendly or start another line of questioning. Rick just keeps quiet as he vacantly reads off the file. "Senator William Bracken."

"Yep." Rick replies simply.

"You think he could have something to do with this?"

"Bracken is being kept in Winterkill Correctional Facility and is in maximum isolation, with very little access to the outside world, where he has been for the past four years and will stay for the rest of his natural born life. So, no, I don't think Bracken had something to do our son being kidnapped." He explains, closing the file and moving it to the side and grabbing another one from the pile next to him.

Sorenson nods again and picks up a random file. "You know, I never thought you two would come this far." He says, and Rick can feel himself harden, armor up with annoyance at the direction this conversation is taking. "I mean, back when we first met, you were a bit of childish jackass." He says with a chuckle.

"And you were a judgemental prick." He says back on a long sigh, tossing the file into another pile before looking up to Sorenson and smiling fakely. "But don't worry, we all have our crosses to bare."

Sorenson chuckles again, this time with a shake of his head and a raise of his brow. "I guess you can't ask a tiger to change its stripes."

"No, you can't." Castle says and stands up. "But steal one of its cubs and watch it tear the jugular out of the first person to look at it crossways."

"Listen, Castle, I'm just trying to be friendly here."

"Agent Sorenson, I would _gladly_ jump off a cliff if it meant saving my son, and I'd do it without a _second's_ hesitation. That's part of being a father. The only problem is right now," He says and picks up a file in his hands, tossing it down to the pile across the table, "I can't figure out which cliff I'm supposed to jump off."

"Well, what are the bigger cases you've worked together. Besides Bracken, who else comes to mind?"

Rick clenches his teeth and shifts his footing, "The only other person that comes to mind I watched die with my own eyes, so it's not him."

"And who's that?"

Rick takes the file he's had sitting in the center of the other stacks and holds it up, "Jerry Tyson, AKA-"

"The Triple Killer." Sorenson finishes, his brow pinched. "Yeah, I heard he was gunned down about three years ago."

"I watched Jerry Tyson fall to the floor and die with my own eyes and I've already looked at the coroner's report and personally called to double check that his body was actually cremated like his file says he was." Rick explains and tosses the file over to Sorenson. "So, it can't be him."

Sorenson opens the file and begins to read. "And you're certain? I mean, you guys thought Tyson was dead once from what I know about the case."

"He's dead, Agent Sorenson." Castle hisses through clenched teeth.

"What, no wild and crazy theory? If I know anything about you, Castle, you'd be all over something like this." Sorenson says, motioning down toward the file.

"I'm not letting myself go there because that is _not_ what we need right now." He urges, leaning over the table. "Something you need to understand, Sorenson, and that's that I'm trying to do my job as a father and do whatever it takes to get my son back and I don't have time to waste getting lost in the weeds of my own imagination."

"Well, we don't have any other leads right now, Castle. So we could _use_ a wild and crazy theory."

"I can't let myself do that because that's not what will get me her son back!" He says, pointing out the window of the conference room. "Because since she's not letting me do my job as her husband and help her through this, I have to stay focused for the both of us and follow whatever evidence I can scratch together. Because right now, my job as a husband is to make sure she keeps her head on straight and make sure Henry has his mother to come back to, and she's _not_ letting me do that."

"Castle, the absolute last thing your son needs right now is his parents turning on each other when he needs them the most." Sorenson says sternly, and it catches Rick off-guard. "I understand what you're trying to do, but I've seen parents devour each other by throwing around blame too many times. I understand the kind of pressure you're under, trying to keep your family together. But Henry doesn't need you turning on each other."

Rick lets out a hard, long sigh and throws himself back down into his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose, his heart still aching with grief. "I spent four years trying to knock down those walls and another year trying to convince her that it was worth it to keep them down. And after we got married, she always came to me when anything was bothering her. She always knew that I'd be there to pick her back up, to just... hold her when she needed to be held."

Sorenson stays quiet, listening to him get the words out.

"Right now, my job as a father is to get my son back and do whatever the hell it takes to do it. And my job as a husband is to make sure my wife keeps her head on straight so my son will still have the amazing mother he has when I do get him back."

Just then, there's a knock on the door frame. Sorenson turns and Rick looks up. "Sorenson?" A petite blonde says, leaning into the room. "We have Lieutenant Beckett's statement for the press prepared."

"Thanks, Val. Gather the press, I'll brief her and Castle in a few minutes." The agent nods and moves out of the room, while Sorenson turns back to Castle. "I guess we have a job to do."


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Keep reviewing all those of you who are. I'm liking the response I'm getting and I love writing this story. I've had it swirling around in my head for a long time. Let me know what you think! :)_

* * *

The door flew open and she was already starting to stamp out the fight she knew they were going to have. "I don't wanna hear it, Rick." She spat, ripping her scarf off her neck, balling it up and tossing it to the table behind the couch.

"I'm sorry, you _don't_ wanna hear it?" He spat back, closing the door with a strong fling of his wrist.

She started peeling off her coat as she marched into his office to go to their bedroom, still not looking him in the eye as an annoyed, frustrated fight rose in her chest. "That's right, I _don't_ wanna hear it." She reiterated, turning on her heel to shoot him a glare, warning him not to continue that she knew wasn't going to work when she saw his expression.

"Kate, you had _no_ business going into that place without backup." He lectured.

And she was in no mood to accept his babying of her. "His browser history showed directions to the Canadian border, he knew we were onto him, and do I really have to mention that he killed two women _and_ had a history of sexual assault?"

"His records _also_ showed he had a history of extremely violent outbursts, a hatred for law enforcement, and you still went into that job site without backup, Kate. What the hell were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed!" He continued to lecture her.

She didn't want this to turn into a fight. But that's exactly what it's turned into. "I was _thinking_ that I had a chance to put a violent killer behind bars and wasn't going to wait until he had a chance to flee the country. _That's_ what I was thinking. Or have you forgotten that it's my job?"

"Kate, he took a shot at you!" He said, waving his hand at her.

She shook her right arm, the pain-killers in full effect and bandage still wrapped tightly around her upper arm. "It's just a flesh wound, Rick. In case you don't remember," She said, pulling down the neck of her shirt, "I've had worse."

"Kate, if that bullet went an inch more to the right, it would have severed your artery and you could have bled out in minutes." He said, his tone still thick and sharp with anger.

"Well, it didn't. I'm fine, okay? I'm alive, the killer's behind bars for the rest of his life, and we all went home hunky-dory as always." She sassed.

"And what about next time, huh?" He shot back, pinching his brow and narrowing his eyes. "What happens next time when you're not thinking and execute a warrant without backup and the bullet _does_ pull an inch more to the right?"

"That's the risk I signed up for, Rick. I'm a cop, it's part of my job!"

"Kate, you almost got yourself killed today because of that job. And like today, I can't always be there to dive in front of you, as much as I want to be. I almost lost my wife today, Kate."

"Yes, but you didn't. This is the life you signed up for when you asked me to marry you, Rick. I thought you knew that. Ryan takes that same risk every day and Jenny knows that."

"I'm not married to Ryan, Kate. And I'm sure that Jenny would _love_ the idea that he'd come home to her and his daughter safely every night."

"Rick, we may be married, but this is _my_ life." She fought, watching as he paced his way with a hand on his waist over to one of the chairs in his office. "Just because you're my husband does _not_ mean you get to dictate my life decisions for me." She said angrily to his back.

"It's not just your _life_ anymore!" He shouted, turning back around with red eyes. And when she heard his words and saw his emotions on full display, her defenses vanished. He slunk his shoulders as he fell into one of the chairs, leaning forward and hiding his face in his hands.

She moved quickly and pulled the other chair in front of him, sitting down in front of him and taking his hands in hers.

"Kate, the thought of getting handed that flag as they lower you into the ground is hard enough to accept, but them handing it to me with our child sitting next to me, I-I... I couldn't handle that, Kate."

A flood of realization started to pour through her. She's into her second trimester and she wasn't really starting to show yet. But they both knew that they're starting a new chapter, maybe even a whole new book in their lives together by having this child. She remembered all too well the pain and suffering, all the setback her mother's death had caused her. She wouldn't wish that on anyone... and the last person she'd want to have that happen to them is her own child. "Okay." She said softly.

His hands relaxed in her grasp as she moved and pinched his thumbs. "I hate that I'm being so demanding right now, Kate, but... Meredith walking out on me and Alexis, I could handle that because I knew her leaving if she had no interest in raising our child was for the best." He said, finally looking up at her with vulnerable eyes. "You're gonna be an amazing mother, Kate, and I don't want our child robbed of a single second of you."

Kate nodded, leaned forward and placed a long, reassuring kiss to his head. "Neither would I." She said and opened his arms, moving to sit in his lap with her arm draped her his shoulders. "There's a lieutenant's test coming up. And LT has been looking for a chance to prove himself, and the boys pass more of their detective responsibilities off to him than they'd admit as it is."

His arms quickly enveloped her and he placed a hand against her stomach. "And that means I can get the knot out of my stomach?"

"Well, I'd be out of the field." She said, her eyes roving over his face as her fingers reached up to grace along his hairline. "I'd have to do more paperwork and Gates would probably pass more of her logistical work off to me. But..." She said, moving her hands to frame his face, "it will be well worth it to get to come home to you and my family every day."

* * *

It only takes a moment for Sorenson to pull Rick out of the conference room with him, then motion Kate out of her office, where Lanie follows her out to join Alexis and Martha pacing back and forth in the breakroom. Kate comes to stand next to her husband with a stern glare. "What is it?"

Sorenson stands in front of Rick and Kate, holding a sheet of paper in his hands. "We have your statement for the press prepared, Beckett." He says and hands her the paper.

Kate tries to shake him off, waving her hand at him. "No, have Rick read it. I can't deal with the press now."

"We need you to do it, Beckett." Sorenson demands, shoving the paper toward her again.

"Why me?" Beckett asks, taking the paper but not moving to read it.

"Because if this does have something to do with you and your husband's past work together, chances are they're out to hurt you since you were the lead detective. We need to make it clear that you're Henry's mother, that you're hurting, and that above all else, you want him returned safely. If his kidnappers think they really are hurting you, they're less likely to hurt Henry."

"You really think that Henry was taken just to hurt us, or even just Kate?" Rick asks, his hand reaching out and softly touching her forearm as he sees her begin to read her statement.

"It's been close to five hours since Henry went missing, Castle. If our kidnappers were after a ransom, we would've gotten a demand for one by now. At this point, we need to hold hopes that this has to tie back to one of your old cases."

Kate nods stoically. "Okay." She says, looking back up to Sorenson. "I'll do it."

Sorenson nods, "The press is on their way now, we should go downstairs and meet them."

Rick nods and puts a hand on his wife's back, rubbing up and down the dip of her spine for support that she's not accepting. She looks like a stone pillar; cold, emotionless, walled off. He decides to accept defeat, for now, knowing that once those walls are in place, there's no amount of energy that will tear them down. She has to do it on her own. He moves ahead of her and toward the elevator.

Sorenson is stepping up to her side once Rick is out of short ear-shot. "You know, even if it's just for show, you two need to lean on each other for the press."

"We're fine, Sorenson." She spits under her breath. "Our marriage is none of your business. We just need Henry back."

"You need to show that you're going through this together. And," Sorenson says, stopping her by turning toward her, "I don't have to remind you of all the parents I've seen tear each other apart over things like this."

Her anger at whoever took her son quickly gets misdirected. "We're _fine,_ Sorenson." She hisses.

"Don't let that happen to you, Beckett." Sorenson says and moves on ahead of her toward the elevator, where Rick is already waiting for her with his eyes down to the floor.

They all move down to the lobby of the Twelfth, where the press is gathered in front of a podium. The FBI team, along with LT, Ryan, and Esposito, with Rick and Kate taking point next to Sorenson, move behind the podium. Kate feels Rick's hand on her back one last time as she steps up to the podium, seeing the lights of the TV cameras shine in her eyes.

"Thank you all for coming. I'm Lieutenant Beckett with the NYPD," She reads the first line, then reads ahead into the parentheses, "and this is my husband, Richard Castle." She says, looking over her shoulder and raising her arm, inviting him into her side. He doesn't shift his expression from a soft arch in his brow and steps into her side. "This morning, at approximately 9:15 AM, our son," She says, clicking the remote to turn on the screen behind her on, showing his picture to the press and feeling a stab of sharp pain hit her heart when she sees her son's beautiful smile, "Henry Alexander Castle, was kidnapped from the park."

The press's devices click and flicker at her as her heart goes into her throat. This is why she needed him to do it.

She looks back down to the paper and reads on ahead. "Henry is three-years-old... and was last seen wearing a red coat with a green hood, blue jeans... and a grey and black Yankees beanie." She looks ahead and into the camera directly in front of the podium. "He's been missing for over five hours... and we have yet to receive any demands. My husband and I are ready to meet any demands for ransom if it means the safe return of our son." She says, a small shake going into her voice.

She's trying her hardest to get her eyes to stop burning, but it's not working.

She looks back down to the paper and forges on ahead. "Both the FBI, with full cooperation from everyone here at the NYPD are working tirelessly to ensure our son's safe return to us. But we need your help." She says and looks back up to the press, "Please, if you have any information, _please_ call the hotline provided." She looks over to her husband, still tucked against her side with a sad depression heavy in his eyes. "We are offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of our son, Henry."

She looks ahead, feeling a war of emotions between anger and heartbreak rise in her system. "Please," She begins again, "if you have my son... if you're watching this... he's just a little boy. Let him come home to his family." She can feel her tears plainly in her eyes. "And Henry, if you can hear this... mommy loves you, sweetie. We both do, gummy bear."

She steps away from the podium and feels her husbands arm go around her back as he guides her away from the podium, quickly swiping angrily at her tear tracks. Val, the FBI's media liaison quickly steps back up to the podium and begins to address the press to answer questions.

Kate lets rick guide her a few steps away from the podium, now standing next to LT and the others. And with his arm around her, she moves her arm around his back to mirror him, and his pulled in by his shelter. She's felt their distance and it hasn't hurt, she's hurting too much from her grief at losing her little gummy bear. But now... she just needs him.

She quickly turns and wraps her arms around his torso, burying her face into his shoulder as she turns away from the press. She feels her eyes drift shut when she feels his arms hold her and feels herself melt against him when she feels his lips press a soft kiss to her hair.

* * *

" _Please, if you have my son, if you're watching this... he's just a little boy. Let him come home to his family."_

She snaps. She angrily clicks off the television and tosses the remote down. "They're liars. All of them. Every last one of them are liars."

He lumbers around the corner, coming into the kitchen with a dull expression. She picks up the tray and glares at him.

"Did you get it taken care of?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Because now that I have my boy back, everything is going to be fine." She says and carries the tray around him, going down to the end of the hall and carefully opening the door with a smile. She sees her own little boy sitting curled up on his old bed, just as before, his tiny, adorable little legs curled up to his adorable little chest. "I brought you some milk and cookies."

Jakey shakes on the bed when his eyes look up. "Wh-where's my mommy?"

She sets the tray down onto his dresser and bends over with a smile. "I'm right here, darling."

"You're not my mommy. I want my mommy... and my daddy." He says over his arms, holding his legs.

"You're mommy's right here, sweetie." She says. He's been gone a long time. He must still be confused. "What else can I get you, Jakey?"

"I'm Henry." He says. "Who's Jakey?"

"Jakey is you, sweetheart." She says. He's never been this bothersome before. The other ones were, but they were fakes. This is the real Jakey. "You're Jakey."

"But I'm Henry and I want my mommy and daddy back."

"Mommy's right here, Jakey." She says in a low voice, standing back up.

"I'm _Henry!"_ He shouts.

She spins around and knocks over the tray of milk and cookies onto the floor, turning back around and seething. But Jakey just keeps glaring at her. "You'll stay in your room until you're ready to stop pretending, young man." She says and slams the door shut behind her.

Her useless brother is standing, looking blankly at her from beside the couch.

"He's still confused. He's been gone a while, that's all. Jakey is home now, that's all that matters."

He doesn't blink as she marches around her. "Right."


	6. Chapter 6

It was amazing. It was incredible. This tiny, seven-pound and two-ounce, squirming little bundle of pure love they brought into the world, looking up at her with those adorable blue eyes that perfectly match the cloudless sky outside, just like his father's. She's never felt this kind of love, this pure, absolute, undying love that her husband's description of didn't even begin to capture. This was her very own little boy, her own son.

She felt her husband's head lean down against hers as she held their son, who's restless bundled up in the pale blue blanket. She knew the instant she heard his cry bounce off the walls of the hospital room that her life would never be the same. He's not even twenty minutes old and she's fallen in love with this tiny creature more and more with every passing minute. "Hi, Henry." She spoke in a soft voice.

Henry's tiny little arms wave at her and the new mother felt her heart explode violently.

She reached down and put her pinky out against Henry's tiny little hand when he looked up at his mother again. "Hi, my little gummy bear." Henry coos just as Kate felt Rick's lips press down against her sweat-stained hair and stay there. This little boy, her very own little gummy bear, this is her new life, he is her new job. This little boy will come before everything else.

And Kate felt tears in her eyes when she realized that she felt absolutely no regrets accepting this responsibility. "Henry, I promise..." She began, moving Henry's arm around when he latched onto her pinky-finger, "I will _always_ be here for you. I will _always_ be your mother... and I will _never... ever_ put anything ahead of that." Kate sniffled, sucking up her intense rising emotions. "Your mommy knows what it's like to be left behind by your parent, gummy bear."

Henry squirms in his mother's arms for a second before settling back down with a smile.

"I love you _so much,_ Henry." Kate said, lightly poking her son's tiny little chin. "And your daddy loves you." She said, tearing her eyes away from her newborn son to look up at her husband, whose eyes are shining brighter than she's ever seen them. "Doesn't he?"

"More than the whole world." He said and pressed a lingering kiss to his wife's lips, then leaned his head down against her's when they both turned to look down at their son again. "I thought I would be prepared for this." Rick said, the emotions in his voice coming through. "Kate, he's amazing." Rick reached down and gently took his son's tiny hand that was outstretched into the air. Rick pressed another kiss to his wife's hair, "You both are."

When Henry started to squirm in her arms again, she began. "I'm right here, gummy bear." She whispered. "I'll always be right, Henry."

* * *

After another hour later, Rick and Kate were pacing on opposite sides of the bullpen, listening to ringing of phones from the hotline. Most people calling were just opportunistic vagrants looking for the reward money with no real leads. Kate can see her press briefing being run on the news on the TV in the upper corner of the bullpen, feeling a bit embarrassed, deeply annoyed, and awkward when she sees her emotional breakdown being run on live television.

They're getting nowhere. The FBI team are still getting nothing from their old cases and they still haven't received any demands, even after her press conference had been airing for an hour, almost on a loop on the local news channels. Sorenson is in the conference room, still going over the files with his team. Rick is on the other side of the bullpen with his arms crossed, pacing up and down looking at the floor.

He's been through this before. And he has someone else to fall back on, he has another family before her and Henry. She has no one if this all falls apart. A brief reminder gets shot into her mind when she feels her stomach rumble with hunger. She can't remember anything from before Henry went missing this morning, so she doesn't remember what happened this morning for breakfast. It was an odd day for a Friday when she didn't have to go in. But Saturday is usually the day when she treats her whole family, Alexis and Martha included if they can make it, to a big breakfast, just like her mother used to do when she was a kid. It's become a tradition since before Henry was out of a high chair.

But before Henry went missing this morning, almost her whole life is a blur before her son was taken from her.

She sees LT hang up with phone and then sees his eyes drift shut. Another dead-end lead. Just like before. Where Henry was taken is a blind spot for the traffic cameras. No one at the park saw anything. It was done too cleanly to be the work of a few low time crooks looking for an easy ransom. It was a professionally done job. Her eyes go to her office door just as she feels Rick come up to her side. "You feeling alright?" Rick asks.

She shoots him a look briefly before turning back to look out across the expanse of ringing phones and shuffling papers. "It's been almost seven hours since Henry went missing and we don't even know where to start looking, Rick. How do you think I'm feeling?"

"We're gonna get him back, Kate." He says sternly, the mantra being said on repeat all morning. "I promise."

"I made a promise too, Rick." She said, still not looking over to him. "That promise was to our son the day he was born. It was the first thing I ever said to him, and right now, I'm breaking that promise."

"You are _not."_ Rick says and looks over to her again. "We're doing everything we can, Kate. And the second I know which bridge to jump from to save Henry, I'll jump."

"Well, has the FBI checked registered sex offenders in the area yet?"

"Ryan's looking into it, but it's a long list. He left with Esposito just after the press conference to run them down."

"How could they know that the playground is a blind spot in the traffic cameras, Rick? How could they just take Henry from the park like that with no one seeing anything?" She asks in a hushed voice

"Don't do this to yourself, Kate."

"Do _what?_ Whoever took my son knew what they were doing and knew how to cover their tracks."

"Don't let your imagination run wild right now, Kate."

"Rick, Henry's been missing for over six hours and we don't have anything. What else am I supposed to do?"

"Kate, it's taking every ounce of strength I have not to let myself go there, okay?" He urges her in a deeply held back tone of voice. She finally chances him a real look besides the side glances she's been giving him. "I always count on you to be the rational one."

Kate nods after a moment. "And I always count on you for the silver lining."

Rick lets out a breath and takes another step toward her. "Well, we... we have the FBI here combing through all our old cases. Everybody here is still fielding calls from the public, so hopefully, someone saw something. And..." He says, putting a hand on her arm, trying to be comforting, "Henry _is_ our son. He's stronger than you and cuter than me. He'll be fine."

"He is _three-years-old,_ Rick."

"We're gonna get him back, Kate." He tells her again. "Why don't you go in your office and lie down? You've been on your feet all day."

She feels herself ice over and uncrosses her arms, something inside her mind shifting. "Actually, I'm just gonna go get some air. Stay here in case they get something, okay?" She says and moves over to her office. After a few minutes, she comes out with her coat on and her jacket on as she strides out of the precinct purposefully.

Rick watches her with a deep drag of sadness. It's not so much that he wants her to need him right now, it's more so that he needs her right now. He loves Henry just as much as she does. Staying home and raising him is the best experience he's ever had. With Alexis, he had to attend tea parties. But with Henry, he's blowing up evil alien spaceships and getting a lot of practice on his pirate accent. He loves having a son. He can see his mother's strength and tenacity in the way he has to stare everything down.

After a long twenty minutes, with the FBI and the Twelfth precinct staff still getting nothing, and Lanie keeping his mother and Alexis company in the breakroom, he checks his watch and scans the bullpen again. He moves down the hall to look at the elevator and sees she's still not coming back. She's gotten air before, and it's never taken her this long. He's quickly starting to worry about her.

He quickly moves into her office and scans her desk. He leans down over her desk and moves the mouse next to the keyboard around and sees the screen light up, which quickly sends his heart into his throat. He quickly runs out of her office and calls over to Esposito, seeing him just stride off the elevator. "Espo!" He calls, gaining a few more sets of eyes at the sound of his loud voice.

Esposito stops and looks up with a knitted brow. "What's up, did you get a call?"

"No, it's Kate." He says and puts a hand on Esposito's shoulder to pull him back into the elevator with his heart in his throat. "We have to get to Winterkill Correctional." He says and jams his finger into the button for the lower level.

"Winterkill? Why?"

"She's going to see Braken."

"Bracken? Why Bracken? We don't have anything that points to him being behind any of this."

"To her, no lead _is_ a lead. It's like the dog that didn't bark. She said just before she left that she was wondering how it could have been done so cleanly and now she's going after the one person in her mind that would do something like this." Rick explains.

"What do you think she'll do?" Espo asks just as they step out of the elevator and jog over to his charger.

"Exactly what I'd do." He says and flings open the passenger side door. "Anything she has to to get our son back."

* * *

She sits in the chair on the other side of the window, her muscles vibrating angrily with pent up hatred and anger. When she sees the door open and then sees his face, she feels herself flex with anger, her whole body clutching itself.

He smirks and seems to laugh silently as he turns away from her in his orange jumpsuit, before slowly pacing his way through the empty room and sitting down across from her on the other side of the window, picking up the phone. She mirrors his action and slowly takes the phone off the hook and puts it to her ear, her brow like stone. "To what do I owe this visit, Detective?"

"It's Lieutenant now, Bracken."

His brow raises and he nods, feigning being impressed. "Come here to gloat then?"

"You know why I'm here."

His eyes narrow. "What do you mean?"

"I'm in no mood for games, Bracken. Tell me where he is."

Bracken leans down against his arms and keeps shooting her a narrowed glare. "Where Castle is?"

"No, his son. _Our_ son, Henry. Where is he?" She asks in a restrained voice.

"I don't have him."

"Never expect the truth from a politician."

"I _don't_ have him. I didn't even know you two _had_ a son until you just told me."

"Don't play me for a fool, Bracken. You killed my mother, tried to kill me, and I'm the reason you're in here. Give me one reason why I should believe you."

"Because I'm in here for the _rest_ of my _life!"_ He spits angrily. "My own _wife_ testified me in court. I was given two-hundred-thirty years in this place. What could I possibly gain from kidnapping your son?"

"You said it yourself. If you have nothing to gain, you have nothing to lose. Now _tell_ me where Henry is."

"Listen," Bracken says and leans over toward the window closer, "I'd wouldn't entirely be lying if I said I was sorry, but I don't have your son. And considering you two didn't have children when you put me away, he can't be older than, what... four-years-old?"

"He's three and a half." She hisses.

"Look, there's a line even _I_ won't cross, alright? I don't have him."

She feels her throat close, her body tensing just before she sends her palm flying toward the glass. " _Where is my son?!"_

" _I don't have him!"_

She tosses the phone down to the counter and shoots out of her chair, angry tears streaming down her face that quickly vanish once she's going through security again.

* * *

Outside, with his heart pounding with fear, Esposito skids to a stop outside Winterkill and Rick is already out of the car, running on shaky legs around the front to make a mad dash toward the door. But he only makes it half-way down the path before he sees the door open, with her striding out, with the same stern glare etched onto her face. "I know it's him, Rick."

"Kate..." He breathes as she makes her way toward him, briefly letting himself relax. "Bracken didn't do this."

"It's him, Rick. He's lying." She says just as she makes her way around him.

"Kate, you know as well as I do that Bracken as been kept in isolation with very little contact with the outside world. And the contact he does have is monitored. He couldn't pull this off from here."

"You think he couldn't find a way around that? He broke out Hal Lockwood from prison, didn't he?" She's arguing as she marches down the walkway toward her car.

"Kate, why are you so certain it's him?"

She whips around with tears streaming down her face. "Because if it's _not_ him, then I have _nothing!_ If it's not him, then I have nowhere to go and nowhere to look. _That's_ why it has to be him, Rick. Because if it's _not_ him, then the chances that I will _ever_ see Henry again drop to almost zero, and I will have _failed_ as a mother." She says in a broken voice, tears quickly welling up in her eyes, still streaming down her face. " _That's_ why it has to be him." She says and turns away from him, moving back to her car.

"Kate!" He calls after her, but she's dropping into her car without another word.


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Hope you guys like this chapter. Not sure how much longer this is gonna go, maybe ten or eleven chapters. Who knows! As always, let me know what you think._

* * *

She dragged herself through the door, stepped out of her heels once she was through the threshold, consciously observed the stillness of the loft as she slid the door shut behind her. Henry must be asleep by now. She really wanted to be home to get a chance to see him while he was awake, but her first day back at the precinct from her maternity leave wouldn't let her, apparently, getting home close to nine. She slid her bag off her shoulder and caught it with her hand, setting it gently down to the floor next to the couch as she stepped through the living room, over a mess of baby toys and stuffed animals. They must have had a lot of fun today.

She opened the door to his office and felt a large smile blossom across her face. This sight will be one that she will remember till the day she dies. Laid out across the couch on his back, fast asleep, is her husband, and laying slumbering like a rock on his chest is their baby boy, clad in a onesie with cartoon castles on it. One of the joke clothes that Lanie had bought her nephew.

She softly padded her way over to him, reached down and pet Henry's head, listening to him softly snore with his face pressed into his daddy's chest. She should probably get him to bed, hopefully, he hasn't been asleep too long. She gently reached down and moved to pick up Henry, but was stopped by a quiet whisper. "Don't move him, he's comfy."

She felt another smile blossom across her face and looked down at her husband, watching as he opened his eyes with a soft smile. "Has he been asleep long?" She asked in a whisper and she sat down on the floor in front of the couch in his office, moving under his arm and leaned her head down onto his side, gazing lovingly at their son.

"Nah, only about a half an hour." He said and moved his arm around her shoulders as she relaxed into him. "How's work?" He asked on a yawn.

She sighed heavily and reached up, running her finger softly up and down Henry's arm. "I brought that picture Martha took of us at the hospital the day Henry was born and put it on my desk. I could barely keep my eyes off it all day."

"What kept you so late? Did you get a case?" He asked, petting her shoulder with his thumb.

"No, just coming back from a six-month maternity leave, you come back to a mountain of paperwork to catch up on." She said, still watching her son slumber against his father's chest like it's the most comfortable place in the world. Which it kinda is. "How was he today?" She asked in a soft whisper.

"Oh, he was fine. My little man was so well behaved." She nodded against his side, still petting Henry's arm with her finger. "He missed you though."

She smiled, "I missed him too, like crazy." She said and turned her head against his side, looking up at Rick with the same loving gaze. "I missed you today too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She moaned, letting her eyes move away from him. She knew she was caught when she felt his fingers move behind her ears to brush her hair back in a loving gesture, silently pulling it out of her. She looked back up at him, "Rick, now that we've started this new chapter in our lives, do you think we'll look back at the days of us working cases together as... as the good ol' days? Like... we lost something by having Henry?"

His brow pinched, "Lost? What are you asking?"

"Well, I was just _buried_ in paperwork today, and I missed you and Henry so much while you were here at home taking care of him, I-I... I just don't want you to look back on those days when we went from partners to parents and have regrets, that's all."

Rick sighed softly so's to not wake Henry, "Well, I think we can both stop pretending that the only reason I was coming around was to bring you coffee."

Kate smiled softly and lowered her gaze, "Don't think you fooled anyone, Mr. Castle."

"Fooled _you."_

Kate rolled her eyes but pursed her smile. "Touche."

"No, but... I'm not gonna deny that working cases and being your partner was... the second greatest experience of my life."

She readjusted herself against his side, softening her gaze up at him. "What's the first?" She asked, knowing the answer.

His smile grew, "You're looking at it."

She smiled brightly and got to her knees, took his face in her hands and pressed a long, full, lingering kiss on his lips, ending it with a quick peck. "I'm gonna go put our son to bed, and when I come back down... I want you in ours for one of the greatest experiences of _my_ life."

"I didn't wanna mention that in front of the baby."

She swallowed a chuckle and got to her feet, carefully picking her son up and carrying him upstairs, her heart swelling inside her chest hearing his soft snoring in her ear. Her husband 'pulling some strings' to get her a long, six-month maternity leave was one of the greatest things he's ever given her. The greatest she had lying against her shoulder, sleeping like a log as she carried him upstairs. And his father is amazing. Getting to see him as that amazing father she always knew he was with their own son is making her fall for him more and more every day.

And coming home from her first day back at work to the sight of him with this perfect little angel she just laid down in his crib, laying fast asleep just made her fall for him pretty much all over again.

* * *

"We're following normal procedure, Beckett. Following the usual leads while doing what we can to sift through your old cases." Sorenson explains.

"Normal procedure." Kate groans as she paces in front of him. "You know, you spent six months forcing me to follow 'normal procedure' and I don't have to tell you how that ended."

"Normal procedure has been proven to work a majority of the time, Beckett." Sorenson says with a shake of his head. "The problem is-"

"The _problem_ is there are hundreds, if not thousands of people out there who could be holding a grudge against me and my husband." Kate interrupts as she angrily paces in front of him.

"The problem is there's a lot of people to go through. I don't have to tell you that a vast majority of the time when a loved one is kidnapped, the kidnapper is someone you know. And put together, the list of people you and Castle know is a mile long."

"And I also don't have to tell _you_ that the ransom demand usually comes within the first few hours. It's been almost eleven hours since Henry was taken, Will."

"Beckett, this isn't going to end like it did last time." Sorenson says heavily. "I-"

"Don't..." She stops him in a low voice, sending him a glare, "don't make me a promise that you can't keep. Your promises aren't worth much to me anyway." She says and crosses her arms.

"Beckett, that case was an outlier. The kidnapper was... a nobody. Just some deviant who was sick in his head. The chances that we would have found that boy alive-"

"Are the exact same chances that I have of ever seeing Henry alive again, Will. And if Henry _was_ taken by someone like that, I-I..." She says and tries to shore up her emotional armor, "my son shouldn't have to go through this. It _has_ to be someone I've put away before."

Sorenson sighs and scratches the back of his head. "My team is only about halfway through your case files. It's gonna take some time to work through all of them, but right now it's the only lead we have. Ryan didn't turn up anything from the registered sex offenders in the area, they all came up clean."

"That just means they haven't been caught yet."

"Beckett, I'm not gonna drag this investigation out." Sorenson says heavily after a moment of silence.

Kate shoots him another angry glare. "You mean like you did last time?" She asks and looks away from him, feeling cold and shut off.

"I didn't do it intentionally. When we started-"

"No, but you did use the last kidnapping case we were on for your own personal gain." She interrupts him again.

"That's not why I'm here, Beckett. I'm here to help you get your's and Castle's son back."

"Yeah, well, kiss me again and I'll shoot you." She says, almost being serious as she paces slowly through her office. She rolls her eyes to herself when she hears Sorenson chuckle under his breath. Her body feels weak, tired, running on nerves and adrenaline alone. Her mind is jumbled, unorganized, tired, hazy, and only can think of having her son back.

* * *

Rick had to ride back with Espo. Kate had sped off back toward the precinct before he had the chance to stop her. And by the time they got back, it was dark, well past seven o'clock. Winterkill Correctional is a ways outside the city and they hit heavy traffic coming back. It was mostly silent coming back, Rick remaining stoic after trying his wife on her cell phone from the car, only to get her voicemail.

Rick and Espo ride up into the elevator and Espo speaks just as the door slides open. "I'll go check on the team, see what they have and let you know, alright?"

"Yeah, just..." Rick starts, tired and emotionally exhausted from the incredibly long and painful day, "Just give us a minute." He says, his eyes going into the window of her office, where he can see her pacing restlessly in front of Sorenson, who's sitting on her couch leaned forward on his knees.

Espo nods silently and moves into the bullpen. Rick lets out a heavy sigh, trying to expel his frustration and heartbreak surrounding his marriage in one long breath as he moves toward her office. He knows what he's walking into, and it's the last thing they need right now. Shielding his heart, he opens the door to her office. Sorenson stands and tugs on his suit jacket, moving out of her office without a word or even a glance in Rick's direction, choosing instead to look out the window as he moves out of her office, closing the door behind him.

Kate finds his eyes when she turns to pace in the other direction and her expression doesn't shift from the same glare he walked in on. "I don't like that you're shutting me out like this, Kate."

"I'm not shutting you out." She weakly defends, not wanting to do this with him right now.

"You ran off to interrogate Bracken and didn't tell me, Kate. I had to go snooping around your office to find the directions you'd left up on your computer. If I hadn't found those, I would have thought something happened to you." He says, most of his conscious energy committed to holding his voice back.

"Did you have a better idea?" She asks rhetorically as she turns to pace in the opposite direction.

"How about letting me in for a change?"

"For a change? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" She preemptively fires back.

"Kate, you're not the only one missing someone right now." He says, his voice revealing a small shake. "What do you think _I'm_ going through right now?"

"Rick, I can't even remember if I told Henry if I loved him this morning. Forgive me if I don't have the energy to put myself in your shoes right now."

"You did, Kate. I was standing right there." Kate shakes her head, recrosses her arms looks down to the floor. "Kate, this is the _second_ time I let one of my children get stolen from me. You think _I_ don't have some insecurities eating away at me right now?"

"Well, I'm sorry, Rick. But we both know that this is different."

"You're damn right it's different. Last time, I had you to help me get through it."

"Rick, I love Alexis, but it was _your_ daughter. This time, it was _my_ job to protect him and look after him and I failed."

"We were _both_ at the park this morning, Kate. And right now, Henry needs us to work on this together."

"We have nothing to go on!"

"Kate, I am _not_ strong enough to do this on my own!" He shouts with burning eyes. It seems to silence her for a second. "We need to do this together because I _need_ you to keep me from falling apart."

"What are you saying?" She asks.

"You don't think it would be easy for me to pin this on Jerry Tyson?" He asks her, shrugging his shoulder.

"Jerry Tyson is dead, Rick."

"You don't think I haven't thought that somehow he put a plan in place right before Esposito took that shot that somehow involved my child, knowing how much it would kill me if something ever happened to them? Or that I haven't thought that he has a crazed admirer somewhere out there that's coming after me for killing him? Kate-"

"Are you really calling me crazy for thinking that Bracken has something to do with this?" She hisses, leaning toward him.

"No, I'm saying that we both can't get lost in our own imaginations of what might have happened, least of all me because I can't bear the thought of any one of those things actually coming true. And right now, I need you to keep me grounded!"

"Rick, I have to stay focused on Henry. Because I will lose myself too if we lose Henry." She says, watching him turn away from her to gain some distance from her, pacing his way toward the other side of her office. But with her raised voice coming down, she's starting to feel dizzy.

"And if I lose you, I lose _everything,_ Kate."

"Rick." She breathes, her head swimming as her body slowly drains of strength, her legs feeling heavy and unstable in a flash.

"I don't care that I'm not the first thing on your mind right now, but at least-"

"Ri..." She tries again, trying to steady herself against her desk for a second before her vision tunnels and her body goes limp.


	8. Chapter 8

He rolled his neck, cracking the joints loose to relieve himself of the tension. He rolled the toothpick around in his mouth with his tongue, felt the anticipation rise in the air of the crowd. He focused on his enemy, standing at home plate, taunting him. Rick took the bill of his hat and pulled it down over his eyes and dug the toes of his cleats into the ground and tightened his grip. He leaned back and felt his muscles light up. In one quick motion, he whipped his arm forward, sending the ball as fast as he could down toward the batter.

" _Ball four!"_ The TV calls.

"Oh, _come on!_ The ump is blind! That was right down the center!" Rick complained at the TV, letting the Wii remote fall limply against the strap from his hand.

"Alright, daddy, are we re-" Kate called from the living room. She came in with Henry on her arm, wearing a pair of blue jeans, white t-shirt with a short-sleeved baseball jersey left open, her hair back in a ponytail. Her words fell flat to the floor when she saw what her husband was doing. "What in the world are you doing, Rick?"

Rick turned, lifted his cap off his head before pulling it back down and slapped the Wii remote into his glove. In a full baseball player's uniform, complete with a glove, white jersey, white pants with knee-high socks and black cleats, he simply shrugged his shoulders. "Practicing."

Kate smiled and stepped up to him with their son still on her arm, "Rick, you are throwing the first pitch at a Yankee's game. You are not being drafted for the team."

"You never know, honey." Rick said, sauntering up to her and Henry with a smile. "This could be a whole new career path for me."

"Right, because the thing that all baseball legends have in common is they all learned how to pitch on the _Wii._ " She cracked sarcastically.

"I'm getting better!" Rick defended himself with another defensive shrug of his shoulders. "I want to make my little man proud when we take him to his first baseball game with your dad." Rick said with a smile down to Henry, gently poking his nose.

"Yes, and he will be here any minute. So, honey, please change. If anything to avoid the future embarrassment for your son. I don't want his grandpa taking him to games where they have a picture of his father as most embarrassing first pitch in history." Kate said and turned out of his office with Henry, watching as Rick sighed and threw his hat down onto the couch and then going over toward the knock at the door. She opened the door and smiles, "Hi, Dad."

She leaned forward and pressed a kissed to her dad's cheek, "Hi, sweetie." He beamed, his eyes immediately going down to his grandson. "And how's our newest little Yankees fan?" He said, taking Henry from his mother when offered.

"Oh, he's so excited." She said, looking over at her son on the arm of his grandpa, a smile beaming when she saw him look up at her with a happy smile of his own. "Aren't you, gummy bear? You're so excited about watching daddy do what he's best at and embarrass himself _and_ mommy in the process by doing something stupid and unnecessary, aren't you?" She cooed and tickled Henry's chest.

Jim bounced Henry on his arm and swiveled, reaching into his back pocket. "Well, we have to get him dressed properly, don't we?" Jim said and put a black and grey Yankees beanie on his head loosely.

"Oh," Kate cooed again, looking at the adorable sight of her son's eyes being hidden under an oversized beanie, "well, at least he can hide himself when Rick goes out onto the field dressed like he's joining the team." Kate said and stood back up, moving the beanie around on Henry's head to straighten it out.

"He'll grow into it in no time." Jim said, smiling down at his grandson. Her dad loves Henry something fierce. And she knew that once Jim had Henry in his arms, it would take the jaws of life to get him to let go. He and Henry seem to have some sort of bond that she wasn't expecting to form. She always wanted to get closer to him. Since her teenage years and then her mother's death, the only thing that seemed to get them to connect was his sobriety. But now that she had Henry, her father came around a lot more. Him and her husband even connected.

Kate worried about her father every once in a while, worried that he'd be tempted to drift into alcoholism again, but ever since Henry came into the world, all those worries were gone. He's become a part of their family and she can tell that Henry is going to grow up to incredibly love his family.

* * *

Lanie sighs, stands up, and pulls the stethoscope from her ears, having rushed back up from downstairs when called. Rick stands behind her in Kate's office, pacing restlessly with his arms crossed. "She'll be fine. She's probably just running on empty."

"And the baby?" He asks, a tight knot in his throat.

"I heard some thumping, the baby's fine. When's the last time she got something solid into her system?"

Rick shrugs his shoulders sadly, thinking back to this morning, that by now, seems like a lifetime ago. "This morning and that was just two pieces of bacon she stole off my plate at breakfast this morning. I tried to get her to eat something since she's pregnant, but I'm guessing she found something in the middle of the night and just didn't tell me."

"Midnight cravings again?" Lanie asks, a humorous tone in her voice.

Rick chuckles halfheartedly, "I think so."

Lanie nods and puts her hand on Rick's arm, soothing him with a simple, friendly gesture. "She'll be alright, Castle. Just let her rest for now. Once she's awake, get some food in her and try to keep her off her feet."

Rick nods and paces away from Lanie, toward Kate's desk.

"What about you, Castle? You look exhausted."

He turns and smiles heavily at Lanie. "I'll be fine. Thanks for checking on her, Lanie."

Lanie nods, seeming to accept that his resolve is steeled. "Alright, well... call me when you get some news on Henry, okay?"

"Yeah." Rick says and continues pacing, not wanting to stand still as Lanie moves out of Kate's office, closing the door gently behind her. After a moment, his eyes look down at his wife, fast asleep on her couch with her feet propped up on the arm, her head nodded off facing him. She's wearing one of her casual outfits for today, just as he is. Just a pair of running shoes, tan jeans, and a grey long-sleeved shirt. Her coat is hanging off the back of her chair and it's pretty thin. So he decides to slip off his large cargo jacket and moves over to her, gently draping it over her body.

He lets out a long, silent sigh as he gazes at his wife. They were so in love this morning, talking about taking Henry up to the lake house, their anniversary next week. Now, it seems they'll never come back from this, like their just lost in the darkness. Feeling a dark swell of sadness wash through him, he softly grazes his thumb down her cheek, wishing she was here to help him through this, instead of determined to get through it on her own, just like she did everything before they were married.

He lets his eyes drift shut as he hangs his head and stands back up. He moves slowly out of her office, clicking the door shut behind him as he gazes out over the mostly empty bullpen. Sorenson had sent most of his team home, sending the rest back to their field office to run down a few things. Once Lanie had come up to check on Kate, Espo informed him that they were turning up nothing from the rest of the registered sex offenders in the area and the hotline had grown cold as the night descended upon them.

Everyone who had left told him in passing that this wasn't them giving up, just going home to recharge like they should. But he knows her like no one else, and she won't go home until she's leaving with Henry. So the least he can do is stick by her side.

On a heavy sigh, he moves around the bullpen and heads for the breakroom, but is stopped by the sound of the elevator doors opening. The man stepping off is through the doors before they open fully. "Jim?" He calls quietly.

"Rick." Jim says and quickly steps up to him, putting a hand on his son-in-law's shoulder. "I got here as soon as I could."

"I thought you were on a flight to Washington. I didn't expect to see you back here."

Jim shakes his head with his brow pinched. "I got Katie's message as soon as I landed and caught the first flight back that I could get. I ended up getting caught in a layover in Cleaveland for two hours. What's going on? What happened?"

Rick sighs and nods toward the kitchen. "We don't know yet. Kate and I took Henry to the park this morning and we looked away for... just a second, you know? But when she got a call from the precinct and we had to leave, we went to go get him, and... well..." He trails off.

Jim follows Rick into the kitchen, where Rick lethargically heads for the espresso machine, turning it on to make himself something to keep himself standing. "Have you gotten any sort of call? Any demands?" Jim asks.

"No, and the FBI still haven't found a lead in any of our old cases. They set up a hotline to reach out to the public, but we still haven't gotten anything. Now, most everyone went home to recharge their batteries. All we can do now is wait." Rick explains, quickly downing the small shot of straight espresso.

Jim nods sadly, a low, cold sorrow washing through him. Why do things like this keep happening to his family? His grandson of all people, why him? Jim follows Rick over to the couch and sits down just as Rick's throwing himself down, leaning back heavily. "What about Katie? Who's she doing?"

Rick shakes his head sadly. "She's been running herself ragged all day. So much so she fainted about a half an hour ago. Now, I'm... kind of using it to trick her into getting some sleep."

Jim nods and leans forward on his elbows. "She's not handling it very well?"

"About as well as you'd expect." Rick says on another sad shrug of his shoulders. "She loves Henry more than life itself. Now, she feels that she failed as a mother because we looked away for a minute or two."

"Henry doesn't like it when you two hover, she knows that. She was the same way when she was that age."

"I just can't get her to see that she's not in this alone. That Henry's _our_ son and I'd do anything to get him back. The problem is Henry's not the only one I'm responsible for right now."

"No, she's pregnant. She should understand that, Rick."

"I can't get that through to her, Jim." Rick says sadly, still slouching back into the couch. "She's focused on getting Henry back, as she should be, but... she's not realizing that she's not the only one going through this. I mean... this is the second time I've let something like this happen to my kids." Rick says, looking into his father-in-law's eyes. "What kind of father does that make me?"

Jim shakes his head and pats Rick on the knee. "You're a great father, Rick. And... as hard a pill as it is to swallow, sometimes, these things just happen. And you and Katie have made it a point to take those things head-on, and I'd say you've done it very well."

Rick contemplates for a moment, then nods, looking down to his lap. "I just want my family back." He says sadly. "I can't get through to her, so... now the only thing that I can do to get my wife back is to get my son back."

Jim nods, admiring Rick's fortitude. "You should try and get some rest, son. You look exhausted."

Rick shakes his head and lifts his hand, "I'll be fine, I just need another espresso. Just... don't tell my wife, I'm supposed to be doing this whole 'no caffeine' thing with her."

* * *

Her eyes open, but her head swims with moving weight that won't stay in one place. She tries to sit up, but her limbs feel weak and heavy. After a moment of trying, she relaxes back down and nods her head off to the side, seeing her dad sitting back in the chair adjacent to the couch she's laying across, his eyes closed, leaning his head down against a closed fist. "Dad?"

Jim's eyes fly open and he leans forward with a soft smile. "Hey, sweetie."

"What happened? When'd you get here?" She asks in a weak voice, trying again to sit up.

But Jim is on his feet and is jumping to her side in an instant, his hands on her shoulders. "Take it easy." He says and helps her sit up, letting the jacket that was laid over her fall into her lap. "Rick said you fainted last night."

"Last night?" She groans with a hand against her swimming forehead. "What time is it?" She asks, looking down at her watch.

"It's just after seven. I saw the FBI get in just a few minutes ago."

Kate lets out a heavy breath and slunks down into her couch, her mind fully coming back to her... and the deep pang of heartbreaking grief going into her system just a second later. "Henry, did... have they said anything yet?"

"I haven't heard anything, no."

Kate leans forward slowly, putting her face in her hands. "Almost twenty-two hours without him." She says into her hands, "I can't imagine what he must be going through... if he..." She trails off, her voice shaking.

Jim rubs her arm soothingly, "He's a smart boy, Katie. He knows you're coming for him."

She lets out another breath and pushes her hair back, leaning back into the couch. "Where's Rick? Did he go home?"

"No, he's out in the breakroom. I tried to get him to get some sleep whenever I got here, but... the man's dedicated. He started going through files about two hours ago, but stopped about twenty minutes ago."

"He's been up all night?" She asks, worry very evident in her voice. She groans inwardly and grabs the jacket still laying in her lap, not noticing it's one of his casual cargo jackets that he had on the day before until she has it in her hands. Even with their son missing, he still finds a way to be sweet.

"Here, he..." Jim starts and stands back up, grabbing a styrofoam box off her desk, "he wanted me to give this to you whenever you woke up. He wanted to get the baby some real food."

She nods and takes the box, feeling a deep twinge of guilt hit her system. Henry's somewhere without her, going through who knows what. She almost can't stomach the thought of eating when he's missing, not wanting to indulge in something like this until she has him back. But she can smell the food and she can already feel her mouth water. She opens the lid and is taken aback yet again by his gesture.

"He said it was your favorite."

She chuckles under her breath, "Remy's breakfast burger." She feels an honest smile start to prick at the edges of her mouth, the first one in what feels like a lifetime. Like her face has forgotten what it feels like to smile.

Jim can tell when his daughter is thinking and needs an outside voice. "Not every man is willing to put themselves through hell for his family. I wouldn't let him do it alone, Katie."

Kate sighs heavily, looks over to her father and nods. "Martha and Alexis should be waiting at the loft. You can go keep them company if you want."

"Are you sure? I can stay as long as you want, Katie."

Kate nods, "Yeah, I'm sure. We'll call you when we get something."

Jim nods and stands up, pressing a quick kiss to his daughter's forehead and heads out. It's a long moment of silence, her eyes finding his jacket he must've draped over her, the food he'd gotten for her, knowing that Remy's breakfast burger really is her favorite, then finding the bulge in her stomach. She feels her eyes burn, knowing how much he must have on his mind, and despite it all, he still finds the energy to care for her.

She stands up slowly, the box in her hand and takes a step forward. She stops at her desk for a moment and reaches down, taking the third picture frame sitting on the corner of her desk and lifts it up to her eyes, gazing lovingly at the photo of Henry's first day on Earth. He's looking down at Henry so lovingly, the light in his eyes is so bright, even in a picture. Her husband really is an amazing man.

Henry has an amazing father.


	9. Chapter 9

"There he is!" Jim said happily, pulling Henry up as he walked over to his grandpa. Henry began to talk a bit unintelligibly while he sat on Jim's knee and quickly became restless, jumping off his grandpa's knee and scampering across the living room, where his grandmother sat in a chair with a bright smile on her face, waiting for her grandson with open arms.

"Oh, you are so restless, aren't you?" Martha said and pulled Henry in between her legs. "You are just like your father, do you know that?" Martha said happily and pulled Henry back into the space between her legs.

"Was Rick an energetic baby?" Jim asked from across the room, watching as Henry continued to scamper around the room.

"Oh, Richard was a little Houdini, I swear. I could barely get him to keep his diaper on, let alone sit still for more than five minutes." Martha rolled her eyes and waved her hand theatrically.

"Standing right here, mother." Rick called from the kitchen, feeling his wife bump his side a moment after.

Jim laughed, obviously trying to stifle it for his son-in-law's sake. "Well, we never really had that problem with Katie. But she did scream bloody murder whenever her mother told her she couldn't wear her tutu to her first day at kindergarten."

" _Dad!"_ Kate groaned loudly. She could practically hear her husband's Chesire grin as she slunk lower in embarrassment.

"What's next, Dad? You gonna tell something embarrassing about me now?" Alexis asked as she moved behind Rick and Kate in the kitchen, carrying dishes from breakfast.

"Only that you wanted me to file a missing person's report when you were three and couldn't find Monkey Bunkey." Rick said as Alexis moved back into the living room to join the rest of her family with a grin.

When Alexis sits down next to Jim on the couch and smiles as Henry comes running at full speed at his big sister, Rick felt Kate step into his side and put her arm around his back. Rick reacted by pulling her in by the waist with a soft smile, gazing lovingly at his family. It was Saturday morning and they'd all just finished a big breakfast; pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, sausage, all the good stuff. And now, they all were spending some quality time with each other, most of the attention being put upon the eighteen-month-old happily scampering around the living room.

But when Rick looked down, he quickly saw his wife's smile start to fade. After a moment of watching her, she looked up at him expectantly and widened her smile unconvincingly before opening to speak, but choking on words and deciding to look away and back out toward the living room again.

"What is it?" Rick asked, squeezing her side.

Kate just shook her head with a halfhearted smile. "It's nothing."

Rick let out a heavy sigh. "Honey, I love you, but it really irks me when you do that." He said just between them, listening to the chatter from the living room.

Kate looked back up at him with a pinched brow. "Do what?"

"Gesture that you want to tell me something, but when I ask, you say 'it's nothing', so we have to play charades until you _actually_ tell me."

Kate shook her head and leaned deeper into his side, rubbing his back. "Saturday morning breakfast was always my mom's thing." She began, looking up to her husband with soft eyes. "You know, during the week, either my mom would be busy with work, or my dad would be busy with work, and when I was in high school, I might be working, so we didn't always get to eat dinner together, but... Saturday morning, every week, she'd... she'd make breakfast for us and we'd spend the morning just... enjoying each other."

Rick felt a smile tease the edge of his lips. "Is that what's bothering you?"

"Well," Kate said with a one-sided shrug, "I want to enjoy every moment I can with Henry." She said, nodding out toward the living room before looking up to him again, "And you, my whole family." She squeezed his side again. "And I just... know that she wouldn't have missed this for the world. You know, getting to play with Henry, help me make breakfast. My mom set the bar pretty high for motherhood, for what it's worth. And I just wish she was here to meet her grandson, that's all."

Rick felt his heart warm, and after a moment, leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his wife's hair. "You're a fantastic mother, Kate."

Kate just smiled and nodded, looking down between them. But after a moment, she felt a pair of arms wrap around legs. She felt her heart swell as she turned and saw Henry smile widely up at her. "Hey, gummy bear!" She exclaimed and quickly reached down and picked him up, sandwiching him between her and his father. "Did you like the breakfast mommy made, gummy bear?"

"Yeah!" Henry said, leaning back into his father's chest and reaching up to hug his neck.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, how 'bout... we make it a tradition?" She said, raising her brow and lowering her head. "And we do it _next_ Saturday, too?"

"How's that sound, little man?" Rick asked, shaking his son's sides with his hands.

"Yeah."

* * *

With a smile, she knocks on the door. "Jake! Are you awake?" She calls through the door, opening it with another tray in her hand. "Jakey, I have breakfast. It's your fav..." She lets the words fall when she sees his bed empty. Her heart goes cold in an instant, setting the tray down and rushing over to the still freshly made bed. "Jake?" She calls, whipping off the sheets of the bed. Only seeing the pale red sheets with the blue pinstripes on it, her body tenses. "Jakey?" She calls again, moving over to the closet.

He must be hiding. Yes, that's it. He's hiding again.

But when she's at the closet, all she sees is an empty floor space. Harold. He must have taken him again. She knew this was her real Jakey, that he had him all along. But out of the corner of her eye, she sees her boy crawl out from under the bed and quickly run out the door. "Jakey!" She calls and goes after him. "Wait, it's just mommy!" She says and quickly grabs him just before he makes it to the end of the hall.

But Jake starts flailing. "You're not mommy! I want my mommy! I want my daddy! Where's my daddy?!" Jake shouts.

Her frustration surging, she loses control. She grabs his shoulders and whips him around. " _I am_ your mommy... and you don't have a daddy, Jake!'

He's silent for a moment, looking at her with wide eyes. "But-"

"Not another word, young man!" She seethes. "Now, I have your favorite breakfast waiting in your room, sweetie." She says calmly and stands back up, guiding him back down the hall, her hands still on his shoulders. "Oatmeal with bananas."

"I hate oatmeal. I want smorelettes again." Jake says once he's in his bedroom.

"Jakey, you will eat your oatmeal and you will like it." She says sternly and grabs the try from his dresser, anger still simmering in her system. Jake stops in the middle of his room and turns to her with a pout. "Now, dig in, Jakey." She says and lowers the tray.

"My name's _Henry!"_

* * *

With her box in hand and her stomach rumbling, she moves out into the bullpen.

Her eyes quickly scan the faces, seeing Sorenson in the conference room with his team, seeing him give them a morning brief. She then finds Espo and LT at their desks, LT on the phone and Esposito on his computer, checking police reports that came in during the night. Ryan's desk is empty, but it's still early. He's probably spending an extra few minutes with Sarah Grace before diving back into it again. When she takes another few weak steps, her body still feeling heavy and tired, she looks forward and sees through the window of the door to the breakroom.

After a moment, she watches him pace out of view, his head hung low. She feels a deep pull in her heart, partly of guilt, partly of sorrow, and partly of longing. She's moving toward the door with her uneaten breakfast burger in her hand and is pushing open the door slowly, meagerly poking her head inside.

Rick turns slowly, pacing tiredly through the breakroom with an empty cup sitting in his hands. His mouth hangs open for a minute as he looks at her with a tired gaze, but he closes it after a moment of staring at her, softly smirking before looking back down to the floor and coming to a stop. "Hey." She began, stepping inside and shutting the door.

He looks up at her, raising his cup to her after a moment. "I-it's tea, I promise."

Kate rolls her eyes and shifts her weight to one side. "Rick, you didn't have to do that 'solidarity pledge' when I was pregnant with Henry, and you don't have to do it now."

Rick chuckles under his breath as he looks back down into his cup. "Well, coffee's always been kinda our thing, so..."

"It's sweet, but... I think I can let you get away with it just this once." She plays along. Rick just nods and continues to slowly meander around the breakroom. "You've been up all night?" She asks, slicing through the deep silence that keeps falling over them.

Rick looks back up and smiles sheepishly, answering her with a small nod. "I tried to go through some files, but... I can't seem to get my thoughts in order long enough for any of it to make any sense. I gave up about an hour ago."

Kate nods, understanding. It's part of the reason she hasn't thrown herself into going over their old files along with the FBI. Full sentences don't register in her mind long enough for her to retain the information before she's interrupted by an image of Henry flashing into her mind. And having to think about killers while they do is all too painful and heartstopping.

"Have you eaten yet?" Rick cuts into her swirling thoughts.

She looks up to him and shakes her head. "No, I uh... I just woke up a few minutes ago."

Rick moves toward her slowly. "You know, I tried to get you to eat something yesterday morning."

She feels herself fighting a smile, "Well, you and Henry were making smorelettes again. I wasn't about to eat another one of those nasty things."

Rick smiles heavily again and moves over to one of the tables, pulling out a stool for her. "Well, sit down and dig in. You don't want to starve her." He says, looking down to her baby bump.

She feels an honest but soft smile peak at one side of her mouth as she takes her seat, setting the box down in front of her and flipping open the lid. "You're really set on me having a girl, aren't you?" She says and grabs the bacon cheeseburger with a fried egg over a layer of hash browns, taking a large, greedy first bite.

"And you're set on having another boy?" He asks, continuing to pace his way around her.

"I'm set on having a healthy second child with a _normal_ name, which is why I'm letting you choose if it's a girl again."

"You already have a name picked out, don't you?" He asks her, a smirk on his face as he looks over his shoulder at her.

"I... _might_... have one in mind, yes." She says after another bite of her food. "Are you gonna tell me what your pick would be?"

"We agreed to keep it a secret." He says and pours himself another cup of coffee.

"Yes, because we chose not to find out what I was having. But _this_ time, we decided to find out early. And I know you already have a name picked out."

"Well, when you get the results and finally tell me I'm right, I will tell you what her name is going to be." He says over his cup and takes a sip.

She chuckles under her breath and goes about quickly devouring her burger, watching out of the corner of her eye as her husband keeps slowly pacing around the room, not sitting still. When she's wiping her fingers off with a napkin, she looks over to him with concern. He looks so tired, so beaten down, and so deep in thought. "Babe, you look exhausted."

He looks up with another heavy smile and takes another small sip of his coffee. "I'll be fine. I just need to stay focused on Henry."

He might not be consciously using her words, but she feels them hit her in the center of her chest. "And Henry needs you not to collapse from exhaustion." Rick just nods slowly, his eyes staying glued to his cup. "Like I did last night."

"I'm not leaving, Kate." He says and shoots her a stern, serious look. "Not until I have my son back. I don't care how long it takes. I'm not leaving."

She's off her stool and is moving over to him in a flash. "I'm not asking you to, hun. But..." She says and puts a hand on his forearm, her eyes looking away with concern. "Here, at least sit down." She says, taking his forearm in her hand and pulling him over to the couch. sitting down where two of the cushions meet, feeling him sink down beside her. He leans back with a sad pull in his face, his eyes still down to his half-empty coffee cup.

"I keep letting my kids get taken from me, Kate." He says after a few minutes of sitting silently. Her eyes are whipping back over to him in a flash. "First Alexis, now Henry. What kind of father am I if I can't-"

"No, Rick?" She stops him, putting her hand on his leg. "You are a fantastic father to Henry... _and_ to Alexis. It was one of the first things I fell in love with. And Henry is _so_ your son if he can eat an omelet filled with marshmallow and chocolate and only want more."

Rick breathes out another chuckle, letting his shoulders jump as he smiles.

But after a moment of thought, she's pulled into her own insecurities. She looks over to him, opening her mouth to speak, but is stopped by the need to be strong, to not let herself wallow or show weakness. But Rick catches her. "What is it?" He asks.

She just raises a hand and smiles sheepishly, "It's nothing."

Rick lets out a heavy breath and gives a deadpan stare out in front of him. "You know how much I hate it when you do that."

She pushes out a small breath and nods her head quickly. "This is the first Saturday we've missed breakfast together." She confesses. She looks over to her husband and sees a soft concern portrayed in his eyes. "Henry loves breakfast on Saturdays." She continues, looking out ahead of her, feeling a hard stab hit her heart. "We've been doing it since he was just growing out of his high chair. Saturday mornings were always my favorite thing growing up and I was glad that I could give that to Henry, but now..." She says, having to stop with the flood of emotions shaking her voice. "Now, it's Saturday morning and we're not having breakfast together."

Rick reaches over and takes her hand, entwining their fingers together and giving them a reassuring squeeze. She looks over to him after taking in his gesture. "We're gonna get him back, Kate."

Kate sniffles, then nods, looking back down to their hands and putting her other hand over his. "We're gonna get him back."

Rick smiles and starts caressing her knuckles with his thumb. But after a minute, his eyes look passed her and his brow hardens. "Kate." He says in a low voice, not letting her hand go and standing up.

She gets to her feet and looks out the window and out to the bullpen, seeing Sorenson gathered with Esposito, LT, and Ryan, who seems to have just arrived, along with a few other members of the FBI team. Sorenson is looking almost mournfully down to his phone before his eyes lift up to them, looking at them from beside Esposito's desk.

Rick gives her another quick look, and she feels her body tighten in on itself before she's pulling him out of the breakroom, her hand hanging into his in a death grip. "What is it?" She asks the group.

Sorenson looks up to her with a sadness in his eyes. "I just got a call from dispatch." He says in a tight voice.

"And?" Rick asks, his heart lodged in his throat.

"They found a body."


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: To clear things up a bit: yes, I am starting every single chapter with a flashback, and will do so until the epilogue. The flashbacks serve to put Henry in the actual context of their son and Rick and Kate in the context of his parents, and not have the story just be Henry a victim and Rick and Kate the two people sent to rescue him, with them being his parents just hollow titles given to them in a dialogue. They serve to help flesh out who Henry is as their son and who Rick and Kate are as parents, and let you read all characters of this story as members of a family._

 _I like writing the flashbacks, writing scenes of what I see Rick and Kate's life being like as parents, and so on. But I didn't see much of a plot in just making them a standalone story, so I decided to incorporate them into this story. So, no, they aren't pointless._

* * *

Rick smiled softly as his fingers clicked away at his laptop. It was Henry's third birthday in a few days. Kate was keeping her plans as close to her chest as possible and won't even tell him, her own husband. And he has no boundaries when it comes to snooping for secrets being kept from him, their past has shown him better. But this time, his snooping is of no avail. Henry was just put down for a nap a little over forty-five minutes after lunch and was fast asleep on the couch in the living room last he checked. But after another few minutes, he looked up over his laptop and saw Henry walk in, rubbing one eye with his fist. "Hey, little man." The father said.

"Hi, Daddy." Henry said groggily and moved around Rick's desk to his side.

Rick pushed out from under his desk and reached down, picking his son up with a feigned groan and putting him on his lap. "You have a good nap?" He asked just as Henry let out an adorable yawn.

"Yeah." Henry said.

Rick smiled and reached forward, closing his laptop before leaning back in his chair. "You have a birthday coming up, little man. You excited?"

"Yes." Henry answered, a happy smile shining quickly across his face.

"Yeah? How old you gonna be?" He asked, moving his head back and lidding his gaze, giving his son a funny face. Henry showed his dad three fingers proudly. "That old, huh?" Rick said and moved his hand over his son's hair, ruffling it up a bit. He has his mother's thick hair, but he can tell that it's starting to get his distinct suaveness by the way it was slightly starting to wave in the front. "Your mom has some pretty big plans for you, little man. You must be getting lots of presents."

"Yeah, I hope it's a dragon." Henry says in his almost three-year-old tone.

"A dragon?" Rick asks.

"Yeah, I wanna dragon 'cause I wanna be a dragon when I grow up."

"Really?" He asked, sounding impressed. "Well, can I tell you something, little man?"

"What, Daddy?"

"Well," Rick started and readjusted Henry on his lap, pulling him closer. "Your mommy's a dragon _slayer."_

Henry's eyes whipped wide around to his dad, "Mommy fights dragons?"

"Yep. Your mommy even _beat_ a dragon one time." Rick said, hugging his son to him.

"Really? What happened, Daddy?"

"Well, Henry," Rick started on a sigh and felt his eyes start to stare off, his mind quickly drifting into memory. "The dragon stole something Mommy loved very much. Something special to her. As special as you are to us. Only we couldn't get it back. So... Mommy fought the dragon, because your mom's very brave. She didn't want the evil dragon stealing anything else from anyone. So, she tracked the dragon down to its lair and she won."

"Mommy won against the dragon?" Henry asks, completely entranced.

"Mmhmm. It was a long and tough battle, but in the end, she won. She defeated the dragon and lived happily ever after." It's then that Rick's eyes focused back and looked down to his son, then felt a smile pull at his lips a second after. "Then we got you, little man."

"I wanna be a dragon sayer when I grow up!" Henry exclaimed, puffing out his chest.

"You wanna be a dragon slayer too?" Rick asked, raising his brow. Henry nodded proudly and put his fists on his side, posing like a superhero on his father's lap. "Well, how about we go pay mommy a visit at work and watch her slay some more dragons, huh?"

"Let's... _go!"_ Henry said, jumping off his dad's lap and pointing forward, still posing.

Rick ruffled his son's hair and stood up. "Let's go bug mommy, then."

* * *

It's a long, frantic drive out of the city to a rural area with high, untamed grass that's stained with yellow and tan with the changing of the seasons of mid-September, with thick, stout trees plotted here and there, popping out of the fields that line the small highway that looks mostly untravelled besides by the locals. Rick and Kate spend the time in the back seat of a nondescript FBI SUV, wringing each other's hands together with fear.

Val, the petite blonde who doubles as the FBI's media liaison with a background as a profiler, pulls to a stop once the local sheriff's patrol cars blinking lights come into view along the long stretch of highway. One of the deputies is already motioning them to pull off to the side of the road before going back to direct what little traffic there is on the highway. Rick and Kate are whipping off their seatbelts and jumping out of the SUV once it's being put into park.

Kate's legs feel so untrustworthy, her blood screaming in her veins, but at the same time, cold and frozen. Her heart is a wrecking ball in her throat, quaking and shuttering as it has been ever since she got the news that a body had been found. Her mind won't sit still, images and pictures flashing in her mind like a strobe light so fast it's like she's not thinking at all. She steadies herself on the hood of the SUV as she staggers around the front to meet her husband.

Who's in no better shape than she is.

He would feel weak and pitiful that he can feel tears in his vision if he wasn't so all-consumed by the heart-tearing fear. But as Kate comes around the front of the car and puts a hand on the sleeve of his flannel shirt and grabs it by the fist as if to keep herself upright, he puts a hand on her back and steps toward the grass, where they can see two sheriff's deputies waiting a ways into the field with their hats tipped downward against the early morning sun shining in their direction. They can't see anything through the almost thigh-high grass, but they both are almost ready to shut down.

They both are ready to start forward until they see Sorenson step in front of them. "Wait here. Val?" Sorenson says and waves the blonde over. The two agents maneuver through the grass as Rick and Kate stand, waiting near the edge of the field.

Kate feels her heart jump higher in her throat as her body quakes with a silent, protesting sob, her stomach pulling in on itself. She quickly reaches over and grabs her husband's hand and squeezes it with every ounce of strength she can summon, her eyes remaining glued on Sorenson as he moves the sides of his suit jacket back to put his hands on his hips as he looks down.

Rick pulls his wife into his side as his soul starts to tear itself out, watching as Sorenson kneels down. He can see clearly when Sorenson's eyes drift shut. Rick feels his wife shake next to him as Sorenson looks over in their direction and shouts. "It's not him."

In an instant, a flood of relief pours through her, draining every single ounce of tension out of her body as a relieved moan, chocked by emotions, pushes out of her throat and warm tears flow out of her eyes. She turns to Rick, who's looking like he just drained himself of every bit of tension, and she jumps forward, throwing her arms around his chest and burying her face into the warm crock of his neck. His arms quickly snake around her shoulders and hold her to him, rubbing her back as she sucks in emotionally stained breathes to begin steadying herself.

"It's not him. It's not Henry." He says into her ear.

She gives him one last squeeze before moving her arms out from around him and puts her hands on his chest, lifting her head off his shoulder. There's a small sting in the back of her mind, but right now, she's too overwhelmed by relief knowing that the body isn't that of her son. She sniffles and gives him a long nod. "It's not Henry."

Rick nods along with her, rubbing her arms. "He's still alive. He's still out there somewhere."

Then, that stinging sensation in the back of her mind takes over. "But if we don't find him, then..." She trails off, unable to continue as her eyes look back out toward Sorenson and Val, who are beginning their examination. "Rick, what if this just isn't the right... what if he's really-" She says in a broken voice.

"He's not, Kate." He says and tries to pull her in again, but she pushes him away.

"Don't tell me that, Rick." She says in a soft, emotionally tight voice. "Whoever that little boy is, whoever has Henry, _that_ could be him _right_ now. Whoever has my Henry will kill him if I don't find him, Rick."

"We are _not_ going to let that happen, Kate." He tells her sternly, forcing her to look back up at him by putting a hand on her jaw and cupping her cheek. He feels so weak right now, but he knows that one of them has to be strong. "We don't even know if this has anything to do with Henry yet, and if it _does..._ then it's our first real lead and we are going to get whoever took Henry."

"And what if we don't?"

"Will you _stop_ thinking like that?" He demands, letting his hand fall back to his side. "We need to have hope that we will get our son back, Kate."

"Rick, I can't even cope with the _thought_ of losing our little boy. How am I supposed to have hope right now?"

"Because it's all we _can_ have right now."

* * *

With the worry only partly gone, Sorenson chances a glance over at Rick and Kate, seeing them converse between each other emotionally. He then looks over to Val and gives her a nod. "So, what can you tell me?"

"Well, I put him at around four, maybe five years of age. And judging by the location, it's clear that someone didn't think he'd be found." Val says, looking over the field, seeing the deputy directing traffic stop the few cars that are passing by questions, seeing if they saw anything suspicious. "But," She continues and looks back down to the body, "by the way his body was laid, whoever did this cared about him."

"Is that because of the sheet he's wrapped in?" Sorenson asks with a notepad in his hand.

"Wrapped in? No, he's bundled up." Val says, motioning over the sheet with her finger. "This boy wasn't just tossed in a sheet and thrown out of the back of a van. This boy was bundled up with care and rested here. And," Val continues, pulling back the sides of the sheet the boy is tightly bundled up in, "I see no obvious signs of trauma. No stabbing, no blood, no signs of a weapon being used, no signs of torture or obvious abuse. If this boy has been missing for long, whoever had him kept him healthy."

"Child trafficking, you think?"

"I wouldn't put money on that." Val says with a shake of her head. "If that were the case, I don't think we would have found the body. Who called it in by the way?"

"Oh," Sorenson says, pointing over toward one of the patrol cars, "A father and son. They were out here hiking, stumbled across the body and called it in."

"So, whoever put him here probably didn't expect him to be found."

"But they cared for him enough to bundle him up?"

"Sign of remorse?" Val asks, standing back up. "I'll have Ried run his image through our database, see if anyone's reported him missing, then see what we can get from an autopsy. Hopefully, this is connected to Henry's kidnapping."

"I'd imagine so." Sorenson says and moves along side her as they move back toward their SUV to make room for the CSU. "Whoever this boy is, he looks a lot like their son. Two boys, around the same age, nearly identical descriptions, one goes missing and the next day, another one is found dead? I'm skeptical, but that's too much of a coincidence for me."

* * *

It takes a little over another hour to make it back to the precinct, and by the time they do, it's nearly noon.

They were still waiting on the results from the autopsy, but they identified the missing child. Isaac Griffin, four-years-old, went missing from a convenience store in Long Island just over six weeks ago. The FBI had sent agents down to the parents home to give them the news. But once they arrived back in the precinct, Kate went into her office to pour over her copies of the case files surrounding the boys disappearance; eye-witness reports, statements from the parents, financial statements from the parents, employee records from the convenience store, security footage tapes on her computer, anything to keep her mind busy and focused on anything other than what's been haunting her for the past twenty-nine hours.

Rick went back into the breakroom to meet Martha and Alexis, who are on their way over now. But her father was knocking on her door just now, interrupting her train of thought. She looks up and waves him in. "Hi, Dad." She says with a very heavy smile and clicks her pen closed.

"I heard you found a body." Jim says in a low voice as he sits down in one of the chairs on the other side of her desk.

"Yeah, but it wasn't Henry. It was a four-year-old boy who went missing just over a month ago from Long Island." She says and goes back to trying to focus on her work.

"You think it's connected to whoever took Henry?"

"The FBI seems to think so, and right now, it's our best hope to find whoever kidnapped Henry... even if it doesn't lead anywhere."

Jim nods, watching intently as his daughter's eyes remain glued to her work. "You don't think that could happen to Henry, do you?"

Kate looks back up at her father with red eyes. "Dad, if this _is_ connected to Henry, that means whoever has him doesn't have a problem killing an innocent child. And right now, that innocent child is my son. And for all I know, that could be him already, so..." She says, trailing off with a shake of her head as she looks back down to the papers on her desk, "I-I can't think about it right now."

Jim nods, thinking that she would have had more faith in her motherhood instincts than that. "Do you remember when _you_ went missing at that age?"

Kate looks back up to him with a knitted brow. "What? What are you talking about, Dad?"

Jim gives her a hollow chuckle as he shakes his head. "You were just a little younger than Henry. Your mother and I had taken you to the park and we were there for about an hour. And... just like Henry, you hated it when we hovered, so... when you wandered off, we panicked. We searched up and down the park for about an hour before calling the police. And when we did, they said that you had wandered into a flower shop. I guess you'd gotten lost and remembered your mother taking you there and knew it was same. The lady running the place said she recognized you, but didn't know our names so she called the police. You had uh... you had a whole bunch of flowers in your hair when we came running in."

"I don't remember that." Kate says, trying to think.

Jim shakes his head, "Oh, you were only about three at the time. But the point is... the entire time you were missing, I was... I was frantic and thinking the worst. But... your mother... every time I'd try to say 'maybe this happened' or 'maybe that happened', she'd just shake her head and say 'No, she's alive. I can feel it. My daughter's alive somewhere and I know it.' I'd ask her how she could possibly know something like that, and all she'd tell me was... 'it's a mother's intuition.'"

"So..." She starts with a shaky voice, her eyes briefly glancing at the photo on her desk of her and Henry, "what you're saying... is..."

"Just listen to your heart, Katie."

Kate nods, looking up at the ceiling over her tears, letting out a tight breath and feeling... something. Something inside of her telling her... "Yes... he's alive." She says on a nod, looking over at her father's soft smile. "And I'm going to find him."


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N: Sorry for the slow update. I lost this chapter in my doc manager afteraccidently refreshing the page. Got disheartened and didn't get around to rewriting it until today. Sorry! Hope you enjoy. :)_

* * *

"This is torture, you know."

"For the last time, Rick, you are _not_ to remove your blindfold." Kate said, cautiously looking over at him from the driver's seat. "I don't want you ruining the surprise."

"How come I have to wear one of these things but Henry doesn't?" Rick asked, moving his blindfolded head about. Henry belted out an amused laughter from the backseat.

"You can't see, Daddy!" Henry added from the back.

"Because he's the birthday boy and you're not." Kate teased. "But..." She trailed off, turning the car off the road, "don't worry, because we're here."

"Does that mean-"

"No, it does not." Kate cut him off as she stopped the car and whipped her seatbelt off. "Come on, Henry. Help get your dad out of the car for me, but make sure he doesn't take off his blindfold. Okay?"

"Okay, Mommy." Henry said, jumping haphazardly out of the backseat and grabbing onto his dad's hand. Henry follows his mother a ways before Rick feels him stop. "Wow." Henry said, sounding amazed at whatever it is he's looking at.

"Alright, little man," Rick said and reached down, picking his son up. "Jig is up, what's Mommy gotten us into?"

"Okay, Henry. Take his blindfold off." Kate called from a bit of a distance. Henry reached over and tugged the folded up bandana from his father's head. Rick opened his eyes and blinked a few times, then felt his jaw go slack once the sight hits him. "Surprise."

Rick breathed out a breath of amazement and readjusted Henry on his arm. He found himself standing in the driveway of a beautiful, two-story house, painted a light blue with dark blue shutters, white railings lining the porch, with a glistening lake in the background. "What is this?" He asked his wife after taking a long moment to soak in the view.

She felt her heart skip as she pushed herself off the railing of the lake house and moved over to her husband and son, who both have large smiles of awe on their faces. "It's uh..." She began, looking over her shoulder toward the house, "it's ours, Rick." She told him once she's in front of him.

"What? _This_ is your surprise, this is what you've been planning this whole time?"

"Can I go swim, Mommy?" Henry asked, seeing the lake off in the distance.

Kate smiled, " _Sure,_ you can, gummy bear." Kate said and took Henry from Rick's arm, taking him in her's instead. "We all can, m'kay?"

"Wha... this is ours?" Rick asked, still stunned.

"Well," Kate began with a one-sided shrug, "one of the benefits of having a best-selling novelist as a husband is not having to worry about money so much. So, _I_ thought that since I still get paid for being a cop and my paycheck was just sitting there... that I'd invest in something that we could all enjoy together, just us and the kids."

"And you can afford a place like this?" Rick asked, her use of a plural not exactly going over his head.

Kate chuckled and gave him a sly grin. "Got it through a friend of mine in police auctions. Used to belong to an amateur athlete until the NYPD busted him for crashing a sports car into a school bus depot. Made an offer before it went up, got it for a steal. Hey, birthday boy," Kate said to Henry still sitting on her arm. Henry looked over, still entranced by his surroundings, "there's a porch swing just up those stairs." Kate said to him as she set him back down to the ground and point up the stairs of the lake house. "Go test it out for us while I talk to your dad, okay?"

Henry smiled and scampered excitedly up the stairs. He loves swings.

Kate stepped forward and snaked her arms around his waist. "As much as I love the house in the Hampton's, I wanted a place that we can take our kids to that wasn't used to seduce air-headed bimbos in their father's past life before he met their mother."

The use of plural still not going over his head, he pulled her in closer. "You do know that's where we got married, right?"

She gave him a nod, "And it was the happiest day of my life, _but..._ I wanted us to have a place that's just ours, that will only have memories of our family attached to it, of the life that _we_ built together. And if I had just asked for your checkbook to do it then it wouldn't have meant the same thing, so... "

Rick smiled, his heart swelling, "And... I couldn't help but notice that you said kid... _zzz._ " He said, dragging out the 's'. Kate's smile just softened, clearly knowing what she said. "You really want to give it another go?"

Kate leaned in closer. "There are fireflies out this time of year... and Henry would just _love_ to tire himself out catching some tonight."

Rick's smile widened across his face. "Well," He started and looked passed her, over to the porch where he can see Henry sitting in the center of the porch swing, "why don't you go up there and sit next to Henry so I can get a picture of the two best people on Earth."

Kate's smile shined fully over her face as she pressed up on her toes to kiss him sweetly. "That one's gonna go on my desk."

* * *

Rick quickly found himself in front of the murder board, clipping up photos and jotting down notes as Espo and LT went about making phone calls to the family about Isaac Griffin. But at his desk, Rick could hear Ryan talk in a low voice. "No, don't wake her up for this, Jen. I just wanted to make sure she's okay."

Rick's heart tugs violently, thinking of the times Kate's called him to check up on Henry, just needing a lift out of the darkness she plunges herself into on a daily basis. She's locked herself in her office with copies of the casework, and he can feel the distance between them again. Although, he did see Jim go in about five minutes ago. If he had the emotional energy to deal with it, along with the physical energy it would take to fight with her on it, he'd push her like he used to. But he has to focus what little energy he has in his reserves to finding whoever killed this little boy.

He can't even look at the photo of him for more than a few seconds of a cautious glance over it. The resemblance to Henry is all too uncanny. He's just a little older than his own son. And with his unchecked imagination, he can't help but feel that whatever this boy was caught up in has something to do with them. That, somehow, this boy was left as some sort of sick message, that because of him, Henry will face the same fate if he doesn't find out what happened to him.

He can't dislodge his heart from his throat, his entire body obey's Murphy's law to a tee, it feels like. And as his eyes hazily skirt over the case details he's scrawled out, he hears his name being called. "Richard?" His mother says.

"Dad," Alexis says, following his mother. He looks over to them, but his eyes are pulled down to the object in Alexis's hand.

And he can feel his eyes start to burn. Alexis obviously notices and lifts the stuffed tiger up to him, and Rick takes it with a weak hand. This is Henry's favorite. Tigers have been Henry's obsession ever since they took him to the zoo for the first time and he heard the tiger roar. He was so excited, but for Mommy and Daddy... it brought back too many memories of almost being eaten. They decided to share that story with him when he's older, though.

"Richard." Martha calls again, sounding emotional. He looks up from holding the stuffed tiger gingerly in his hands. "We heard you found a little boy's body."

"Uh..." He says in a shaky voice, looking back down to his son's stuffed tiger. "Yeah, we did. But it wasn't Henry."

"So he's alive." Alexis says. "That means that... that he's alive somewhere, right?"

Rick feels the need to be strong surge in him as he looks down at his eldest daughter. "That's what we have to hope for right now, Alexis. But, right now, we have the body of an innocent four-year-old boy on our hands. I-it..." He starts, feeling a tight mix in his throat, "it's not Henry, but... but his parents deserve-"

"Richard," His mother starts softly, stepping forward and putting a hand on his arm, "there is no one here blaming you for staying focused on Henry."

"I-I know that, mother. Just..." Rick says with a shake of his head, looking over his shoulder to the photo of the young boy. "This is the first time I've had to really face down the idea that Henry could... could end up like that. All because of... because of who I am or... or what my wife and I have done, somehow."

Martha rubs her son's arm soothingly as his eyes go down to Henry's stuffed tiger again in deep, heartbreaking anguish. But Alexis's eyes are trained on the picture of the young boy they have clipped to the murder board, the cogs in her mind starting to whirl. "Is... is that the boy you found this morning?" She asks, pointing her finger.

Rick looks up, does a slight doubletake over toward the photo and looks back over to his daughter. "Yeah, why?"

Alexis just shifts her weight to one side, narrowing her eyes as her mind starts to move. "What if..."

After she trails off, Martha leans forward and pulls it out of her, "What if what, dear?"

Alexis moves around her father and stands in front of the murder board. "What if this doesn't have anything to do with you?"

Rick follows her over to the board, trying to shift enough energy into his mind to get it to think straight. "That's our best chance for a lead right now, Alexis. If it doesn't have anything to do with me or Kate, then we won't have anything to go on."

"But what if it has something to do with Henry?" Alexis asks.

"What do you mean?" A voice cuts in behind them.

They all turn and find Kate standing behind them with a straight brow. Alexis turns and quickly begins to explain before she loses the thought. "You've all been thinking that Henry was taken because of someone holding a grudge against you and Dad for a past case, right? Well, what if it's not about you, but it's about Henry?"

"Alexis, how could it be about Henry? He's three years old." Rick says.

"Dad," She says and pulls the photo of young Isaac Griffin off the board and shows it to him, "two children are taken within weeks of each other and they look almost identical? What are the odds of that?"

It's then that Rick starts to hitch onto her train of thought. "So, what you're suggesting is-"

"Run a search for all children matching Henry's description reported missing within the last few months." Kate said and rushed into the tech room, where she is already ordering Tori to run the search by the time Rick follows her in.

"There have been..." She starts, clicking away at her keyboard, "five boys reported missing, Isaac Griffin included, in the past six months that match Henry's description. All of them still open cases besides the Griffin case."

"Now, run a search for boys that went missing, but were recovered within the last year." Sorenson says from the doorway, having overheard all of them.

"Uh," Tori starts as she searches. "None matching those exact circumstances, but there is a report of a father asking for police protection for his son, Jake."

"Pull that up." Kate says.

Tori clicks on the file. "Harold Sterling, the father of Jake Sterling, called the police and requested a patrol be placed outside his house because he feared his ex-wife, Wanda, would take his son during the night and wanted police protection. Later, he placed a federal restraining order on her and told the court she was quote 'hysterical and prone to violent outbursts'. He had received sole custody of his son after the divorce when it came out in court that she would apparently lock Jake in his room for hours, sometimes, days on end while Harold was out of town on business."

"Can you pull up a picture of Jake Sterling?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, sure." She says and clicks on another file.

And the picture lights up the screen, Rick's mind starts to put things in place. "He looks just like Henry."

"Where is Jake and his father now?" Kate asks.

"They moved to Montana six months ago."

"Six months, that's right when the kidnappings started." Sorenson says, taking a step inside.

"She's convinced that the boys she's kidnapping are her son, Jake." Kate says, turning around to face Sorenson.

"But when they turn out not to be, she kills them and goes looking for Jake again." Rick continues.

Kate looks down to the floor, her eyes wide and her mind whirling around in fear. "And she kidnapped Henry convinced that he was her son that her ex-husband took away from her."

"Where does she live now?" Sorenson asks Tori.

With Tori's fingers already clicking away at her keyboard, she starts. "No official address listed for her, no employer listed. But she is listed as the emergency contact for a Tony Rogers, she's his sister."

"What do you have on him?" Kate asks.

"Tony Rogers, younger brother of Wanda Sterling, I guess she never went back to her maiden name. But they both lost their parents to a car crash according to police records. They both ended up in the system after that, never separated though. By the looks of it, Wanda got her brother out of trouble a lot as a kid."

"That must be a strong bond." Rick says.

"Strong enough to help her kidnap kids she thinks are her son?" Kate asks, turning to face her husband.

"I'd hedge a bet it's Stockholm." Sorenson says. "It's more than what we had a few minutes ago. Where's the brother live now?"

"Just sent you the address." Tori says.

And with that, they all bustle out of the tech room, Kate's heart surging with purpose as she goes toward her office to grab her gun. "Okay, we can be there in just under half an hour if we cut the sirens on." Kate says, following Sorenson and his team out into the bullpen.

But Sorenson is quick to turn with a blank, stoned off expression. "You're not going, Beckett."

Kate freezes, the words stopping her. But she's quick to react with anger. "Will, this is my _son_ that's at stake here. I need to be in on this."

"That's exactly why you're staying here, Beckett." Sorenson says, lifting his hand. "The last thing that I need when we go in there is his real mother, especially when his kidnapper thinks the boy she has is actually her son. You're not emotionally stable right now, and I don't need you going in guns blazing like I know you want to."

"Will-"

"This is final, Beckett." Sorenson says, cutting her off. "We don't know if this woman has been watching the news, but if she has and she recognizes you, she could have a mental break and she could take shots. _And_ you're four months pregnant."

Kate feels her words pull back down her throat, but everything else is trying to push them out, trying to push herself, wanting to run headfirst to save Henry. But Sorenson is turning on a heel and brisking his way toward the elevator, with Esposito, LT, and Ryan following close behind, all with brief promises that they'll bring Henry back, but it's all muffles against the blood surging in her ears.

"Kate?" Rick tries next to her, putting a hand on her arm. She looks over and sees him gazing at her with an arch in his brow.

But she's feeling held back, pushed down, emotionally drained, angry, and feeling an intense hatred for the woman who has her little gummy bear. And she knows it's being directed wrongly at him when she spins and makes for her office.


	12. Chapter 12

Kate softly padded her way tiredly down the upstairs hall of their new lake house, on her way downstairs to get something to warm her dry and scratchy throat. Her and her husband's activities just a few hours ago had left her exhausted and heavily sated. She's always wanted more kids ever since they had Henry. She always felt that she was missing out by growing up an only child, almost like having to make close friends because she didn't have that bond with anyone. If she can, she wants to give that to Henry.

He'd make a great big brother, also.

But as Kate walked slowly down the hall and passed Henry's room, she heard his sheets rustle about quickly, as if he's throwing himself around in bed. Her motherly instincts kicking in, she went up to his door and peeked inside. "Henry? Are you okay?" She asked the small, restless lump underneath the sheets.

There was a moment of silence before his tiny voice, stained with sleep, spoke to her. "I had a bad dream, Mommy." He admitted, poking his head out from the covers.

"Oh, sweetie." Kate cooed soothingly, quickly making her way to his bedside and sitting down on the edge, pulling her son into her side. "Was it about the spiders again?"

"I don't like spiders, Mommy. They're scary." Henry said, digging himself into the warmth of his mother's side.

Just a year earlier, Henry had stepped on a spider that was lurking around on the floor of the loft at night and got scared. It was huge for a spider, but being the sleuth his father is, he looked it up with Henry on his lap and explained that they are fairly harmless. It didn't help, though. Henry still has recurring nightmares about it. "Spiders are pretty scary looking, huh?" Kate said, tugging Henry closer to her.

"Yeah," Henry said, hugging his mother.

"You know, gummy bear, if you're scared, you can always come sleep with me and your dad."

"But, Mommy, if the spiders see that I'm scared, if the spiders see that I'm scared then they win."

Kate felt a smile, a letdown smile, tug at her lips as she pets Henry's hair. It was always a bit of a fantasy of hers ever since she was pregnant with Henry, that one day, he'd come and crawl into bed with them in the middle of the night because of a bad dream he's had. But her thick hair wasn't the only thing that she passed on to her son, it seems. Henry's always been such a brave little boy. "Well, gummy bear," She said and pulled back to look at him, "if you ever get too scared, of anything at all, you can _always_ come to us... okay?"

Henry nodded, "Okay, Mommy."

"Okay," Kate said with a bright smile. She turned and laid Henry back down to bed, pulling the covers over him and tucking him in tightly, then put his stuffed tiger under his arm. "Here, take Ozzy." Henry takes his stuffed tiger and hugs it closely, then burrowed himself deeper into his covers. "Now, give Mommy a kiss!" She said to him, sticking her tongue into her cheek and moving down to him.

Henry threw his arms up and hugged her neck, blowing a raspberry against his mom's cheek, making her feel overcome with hysterics and love at her son's antics. "Love you, Mommy."

She retucked Henry back into bed and placed a soft kiss on his forehead. "Love you too, gummy bear."

* * *

Kate sits at her desk, door closed shut, with her elbows digging into the wood and her foot bobbing up and down with unrest. She's feeling a thousand different things right now, and her mind is thinking a thousand and one. It's all just swirling, everything right now just seems so... up in the air.

Just yesterday morning, her and her husband were madly in love, their son was playing happily at his favorite park. They should be at the lake house by now. They should be arranging plans to leave Henry with his grandpa so she and Rick can go celebrate their anniversary next week. They were planning on going up to Vermont. But now... all of that just seems like another life.

She should be in on this, she needs to be in on this. It's only been twenty minutes, but it's been the longest twenty minutes of her life. And right now, with the waiting, the tension hanging in the air, she feels like standing on the edge of a cliff, and all she has to do is decide if she wants to jump or not. And then there's Rick...

Her mind sends a brief crash of realization through her when she thinks of him. Before they found that body, they were beginning to repair things. But now, she's sitting in her office alone, waiting. Waiting for her son to come back to her. Waiting for _their_ son to come back to _them._ Her eyes look over and quickly find their wedding photo, sitting to the left of the one of Henry's birth and the one of her and Henry sitting on the porch swing of the lake house. Rick and Henry are her family. Her husband and her son. They all made a silent promise to each other that they'd get through their lives together.

Henry brought her and Rick closer than ever, but she never thought that losing him would tear them apart. Maybe because she never thought she _would_ lose him. No parent ever thinks that their kids would be the first to go. But... no, Henry's not dead. He's alive and he's going to come home. She steels her resolve, fortifying herself against the sea of doubts and heartbreak she's been drowning in for the past two days. Rick loves Henry so much, he loves being back at home playing Mister Mom like he did with Alexis when she was little.

And she loves coming home to her family every night.

And it's about to get bigger. She's still pregnant. And Henry is excited about being a big brother to a baby boy or baby girl. Rick is hoping for a girl. But really, she'd like another little boy. But in any case, they are all excited about their new arrival, whatever it may be. Henry was a very well behaved baby, never too fussy or troublesome, never had that much trouble sleeping through the night. There were nights that left her going into work on empty, but it was worth all of it. And it will be worth it again when they have to do it with this next child.

She shakes her head, her body still buzzing with annoyance at being held back from rescuing her own son, and she leans back in her office chair. Her eyes move over to her in/out box, seeing a few stacks of paperwork, along with a few envelopes sitting on top. The thing she was called in for yesterday morning just turned out to be a logistical error, just some missing number on some missing page for some missing file number.

She groans inwardly and tosses herself forward again, taking the stack of papers out and setting her work, along with her mail down in front of her. The first one is junk, the next is an insurance form for the lake house, but the third envelope sends her heart into her throat. She'd completely forgotten about it until now.

With her body frozen in anticipation, she rips open the letter and pulls the paper out.

* * *

Rick lets out a long, light breath, trying to breathe out the tired tension in his body as he sits, leaning forward on his knees, gazing down at Ozzy, Henry's stuffed tiger. He named it after the tiger that he heard roar at him at the zoo. While the other kids were yelping in terror as that 400 lbs. man-eater lunged at the crowd with a roar that sent chills running up his spine, Henry was jumping up and down with excitement at how cool it was. He's been obsessed with tigers ever since.

But for Mommy and Daddy... it was a mix knowing that they almost got eaten, but also knowing that it wasn't the last time they found themselves handcuffed together.

Rick rolls his eyes at that thought. They found Henry, hopefully, they know where he is, they're going to get him back. But he wishes that Henry had his loving parents to come back to. She's so distant and angry right now. Back before they were married, this would be the time when he'd go home and come back the next day, giving her space to vent out whatever it was that was bothering her and start the day fresh and back on the right foot. And even after they got married, there were times when he'd give her space and take Henry for the night to visit grandma in her apartment, and just give her the loft for the night.

But now, of all times he needs his wife to lean on, it would have been through this. It feels like he's had to push through this whole thing by himself, while still trying to carry her through this _and_ fighting her because he's carrying her, to begin with. There were moments when they'd lean on each other like they're supposed to. But now, he's exhausted, starving, heartbroken that his son is going through all this, guilty because he's not a good enough father to keep this from happening, and shameful that he's not a good enough husband to get his wife to see they need to support each other.

At least he can get Henry back. The rest, he decides, can wait until later.

He pets Ozzy's fur with his thumb, still gazing down at it longingly and thinking of the times Henry's walked into his office, dragging his stuffed tiger by the arm along the floor. And it's another few minutes before he hears the door to the breakroom open. He looks up and sees Kate poking her head in, a soft arch in her brow. "Hey," She says softly.

He swallows and looks back down to Henry's toy, "Hey," He responds in a tired voice.

Kate looks over and sees Rick holding Ozzy, and she feels a sting in her heart. She never forgets to tuck Henry in with Ozzy, neither does Rick. And Henry almost never goes to bed with the same bedtime stories. His dad is always making up new ones for him. She's listened in on a few, he's really good. But even now, Rick still looks beaten down, tired, and heartbroken. "How'd Henry's stuffed tiger get here?" She asks, moving into the breakroom.

Rick sighs heavily and throws himself back into the couch. "Alexis came in with it. She's uh... she's enjoyed being a big sister more than I anticipated, so... I guess she was in Henry's room when they saw the news."

Kate smiles softly as she closes the door. Alexis does love her baby brother. And she's happy that her baby brother is getting the childhood that she never had, the family and togetherness that she never got before her own mother ran out on them. Her mother was never really interested in being a mother, and Alexis has admitted to Kate on a number of occasions that she's happy that Henry is able to have the kind of mother she always wanted. "I didn't see them out there, did they go back home?"

Rick nods, "Yeah," he says softly. "I wanted Henry to get home to some decent food." He says, looking down at his watch. "It's nearing dinner time, so we'll need to get some home cooking into him."

Kate nods silently in response as she paces across the break room in front of him. "So, how are you doing with all this?" Rick looks up to her, giving her an almost desperate stare. "I mean... Henry coming home after all this."

Rick looks back down to Ozzy, now just sitting on his legs. "I just want my son back." He says, emotions gripping his voice as a silence falls over them. "I would ask for my wife back, but I guess I have to pick my battles at this point."

"You didn't lose me, Rick." She says softly, turning to face him. He just looks back up to her, giving her a soft challenge with a simple look. "I-I just..." She begins with burning eyes, "I just love Henry so much, and... getting him taken from me... feeling like this is why I put that wall up in the first place."

"You know, I thought I didn't have to worry about that when we got married, Kate."

"And I never imagined I would have to worry about anything like this ever happening to our son, Rick. Or any of our kids, for that matter." She says, the thing that prompted her coming in her coming into her mind again, lifting her heart.

"All I'm saying is that it might have been a little easier if you saw that you weren't in this alone. And the thought of anything happening to Henry... or to you... or to our next child tears me apart too, but that's why I needed you with me on this, but..." He trails off with a sad shake of his head. "We were supposed to be at the lake house right now."

Kate breathes out a hard chuckle. "You know," She says and paces her way over to him, "the first night up there, I was going downstairs to get something to drink, and I heard Henry having a nightmare." She tells him as she takes a seat down on the coffee table in front of him. "I went in and he told me about it."

"Was it the spiders?"

Kate nods, her heart swelling at how well he knows their son, "And... you know, it's been a fantasy of mine to wake up in the middle of the night to find our little boy tucked under the covers in between you and me, having snuck into our bedroom because he was scared. But... you were right when you said that Henry's strong." That gains her Rick's eyes. "He either has my pride or your bravery. He's three and a half and I know he still has nightmares, but... he's never once crawled into bed with us."

"Well, he is a very brave kid. He didn't even flinch whenever that tiger lunged at us that day." He says, lifting up the stuffed tiger.

Kate laughs softly, "Yeah, he was so excited."

"And," Rick says, lifting his brow, "we never have to worry about him walking in on us."

"Oh, my god... Rick." She says, rolling her eyes despite the smile she feels tugging at her lips.

"Hey, it's made for some great nights."

Despite that, Kate does know that. "We have had some incredible nights together, haven't we?"

Rick smiles softly, still leaning back with Henry's tiger on his lap. "Our wedding night?"

"Our wedding morning?" Kate smirks knowingly.

Rick grins, "Our first night together?"

"That night up in the Hamptons, when we first went up there?"

"Our first anniversary?"

"Our _second_ anniversary?" Kate asks, a lift in her brow.

"Our first night up at the lake house?"

Kate chuckles. "Yeah, we kept Henry up late chasing fireflies so we could have the night to ourselves."

Rick smiles and looks down to her baby bump. "That's the night we made that." He says, nodding his head toward her.

It's then that her heart swells inside her chest and her blood warms, a tidal wave of love and excitement washing over her. She leans forward and grabs his hands, pulling him forward and soothing over his knuckles with her thumbs as she speaks. "Them."

In an instant, Rick's face falls as he's stunned. "What?"

Kate looks back up to him with a smile. "I got the results back." Rick just looks at her with wide eyes, his heart in his throat. "It's twins, Rick."

"W-w-what? You-you-" He stutters.

"A boy and a girl." She says, her smile fighting to hold back.

"A boy _and_ a girl?" He asks, his smile splitting his face in two and his eyes crinkling. "Oh, my god." He leans forward and captures her lips happily, kissing her sweetly. She giggles against him and places a hand on his jaw, pulling him in closer. He lets her go after a long kiss, "Henry's gonna be so excited."

Kate smiles full-force again, "Yeah, he is."

"He's gonna be a great big brother... to... Ellie." He says, looking over at her with a soft gaze. "Ellie Johanna Castle."

Kate feels tears of joy flood her eyes, feeling the beautiful name of her unborn daughter light up her heart as she thinks of the name she has in mind. "And to Aaron." Rick looks up to her with another smile. "Aaron Richard Castle."

"Ellie and Aaron Castle." He says, looking down to her abdomen again.

Kate nods and takes his hands again, "We're gonna get Henry back, Rick. And when we do, we can tell him what a great big brother he's gonna be to his baby sister and baby brother, to Ellie and Aaron."

* * *

 _A/N: As I said in the first chapter, this KINDA ignores the canon on their kids._

 _Kinda... ;)_

 _Let me know what you think of the names. I only chose Henry as the name of their child because if I could legally change my name without hurting my dad's feelings, I'd change it to Henry. But Ellie and Aaron seem like proper names for their kids. I never liked the names the writer's chose for their kids in canon._


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N: Yeah, long wait. No real excuse this time. Last chapter before the epilogue._

 _And two things... yes, I did realize that a letter was unconventional, but I set it up in the very first chapter for a reason. I knew some people were going to feel the need to pick it apart when I wrote it that way, but whatever. It works best. And I almost don't want to tell you guys that I actually got the name 'Ellie' from the Dead Space series, which I've been occupying some of my time with lately._

* * *

Henry sat, kneeling on one of the stools as he watched his father cook them their signature breakfast. "Graham crackers!"

Rick smiled as he sprinkled the marshmallows gently onto the omelet. "You wanna add graham crackers this time?" Rick asked, quickly turning around to go to the cupboard.

"Yeah!" Henry said excitedly. "Like a real one."

"Alright, little man," Rick said with a soft smirk, a box of graham crackers in his hand. "Two smorelets, add graham crackers, coming up." Rick looked up after crushing the crackers in his hands and sprinkling them on top like topping and putting them on separate plates. "Well, well, Mommy's finally come to join us for breakfast." Rick said, putting Henry's plate in front of him. Kate scratched her head and shuffled around the island, putting her hand on her husband's chest and pressed up on her toes. "Morning, hun." He said and placed a greeting kiss on her lips.

"Yeah, morning." She said and rubbed his chest.

"G'morning, Mommy." Henry said.

"G'morning, gummy bear." Kate said with a smile, laying her head down on her husband's shoulder.

"You want a smorelet?" He asked her, Henry's mother intently watching Henry start to dig into his breakfast.

Kate looked up with a stern brow, giving his father a hard glare. "You're feeding him smorelets again?"

"They're good, Mommy!" Henry said with a mouth full of food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, gummy bear." Kate told Henry before turning to face her husband. "You have any idea how much sugar you're giving him when you feed him things like this?" She asked him rhetorically, lifting the bag of marshmallows before tossing them back down to the counter.

"It's no trouble, Kate. Besides," Rick said with a smirk as he picked up his first fork full of his and his son's latest breakfast concoction, "Henry wanted to go to the park again today. He can burn it all off there." He said with a shrug as he popped the smorelet into his mouth, then let out a loud moan. "Mmm... this is good." He said and cut off another piece then held it up to her. "You have to try this."

"I am _not_ eating that, Rick. They're disgusting." She said, holding her hand up.

"Oh, come on. We added graham crackers this time. I'll tell ya..." Rick said, popping the food into his mouth, "this kid's a genius."

"Rick, last time, he wanted to add Fruitloops." Kate said, rolling her eyes and leaning against the counter.

"Well, at least have something, Kate. You're pregnant, I don't want her to starve." He said and pointed at her with his fork.

Kate smiled and put a hand over her baby bump. "Our child is just fine, thank you. And besides, I'm not even that hungry."

"Yeah, I uh... couldn't help but notice some of the chocolate was missing." He said just before putting a small strip of bacon into his mouth.

Kate pushed back her grin and moved around him. "We need more mint chip ice cream too." She told him before quickly reaching over him and swiping two more pieces of bacon off his plate with a smile. She quickly devoured them with a mischievous giggle before moving around the counter to hug her son from behind just as he was finishing. "You wanna go to the park today, gummy bear?"

"Yeah, I wanna go to the park!"

"Okay!" Kate said, squeezing her son's arms. "Go put your plate in the sink and wash your face, then we'll go get you dressed."

* * *

"Have anything else on these people, Val?" Sorenson asks, turning around in their utility van.

"Tony Rogers, works for a company that does fire protection. No complaints from his employer, no incidents of violence, model employee as far as his boss is concerned." Val explains, looking at the console in front of her.

Sorenson leans down and looks over her shoulder as Esposito is zipping up his brown jacket. "My cousin does fire protection. It takes him out of town all the time, sometimes out of state."

Sorenson looks over his shoulder at Esposito, who's putting together his disguise. "You think that could be why we haven't found any more of the bodies?"

"Could be possible." Espo answers with a shrug.

"The company does give their employees vans to drive to their work sites. That could be how he's moving them." Val suggests.

"Can you give me a profile?" Sorenson asks her.

Val leans back in her chair with a sigh. "Social outcast from a young age, being cared for by his older sister all his life, lack of a father figure, low IQ... I don't think he has it in him to kill anyone, let alone a child. Don't expect violence from him. Once you execute the warrant, he'll probably be scared. He's probably shy, introverted, lacks confidence."

"And the sister?"

"Expect violence." Val says quickly. "She's built herself a world where the children she's kidnapping are her son. And if she's really done this six times, she's committed to it. She's probably killed them when none of them would admit to being her son. And if she's prone to violent outbursts, she's more than likely an abusive woman. She probably doted on the children for a while before they said they wanted to go home. When these children started to challenge her world where they were her son, she reacted by killing them."

"Cause of death for Isaac Griffin was asphyxiation, fibers in his lungs suggested he was smothered with a pillow." Sorenson points out. "So when they put up a fight and say they want to go home to their parents, she realizes that they're not Jake, and she kills them."

"These kids have all been four or five years of age." Val says over her shoulder at Sorenson. "Henry's been the youngest. If she's doting on them, feeding them well, keeping them happy, it might work for a while. But eventually, they want to go home. So, they might not put up much of a fight at first, but eventually, they want to go home."

"Then we have to hurry." Ryan says, standing in front of Esposito. All eyes in the delivery van shift toward Ryan. "You guys haven't met Henry. That kid's a Castle, through and through."

"What do you mean?" Sorenson asks, turning to face the two.

"You think Beckett puts up a fight?" Espo asks. "Henry's got the resilience of his mother and the mouth of his father."

"If this lady is pretending that he's Jake, Henry won't play into that. And if she's reacting with violent outbursts, that won't shake him in the slightest." Ryan continues to explain. "It might have scared the other kids she's kidnapped into playing into her fantasy..."

"But Henry looks into the face of the things he's scared of." Espo says, almost with pride. "Kid won't back down for nothing."

Sorenson shakes his head once before turning back to Val. "Sounds just like his mother."

"Agents, we're here." One of the other techs says in the delivery van.

"Okay, Espo." Sorenson says and waves him over, handing him a medium sized box with a shipping label attached to it. "You remember the plan?"

Esposito takes the box and puts his hat on, finishing off his disguise. "Why am I the one going undercover? Ryan has more experience in this than I do."

"Because Ryan worked in Narcotics, not the charm I'm looking for, Esposito." Sorenson says, crossing his arms.

"And we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get you dressed up as a UPS driver with a wig on." Ryan says with a boyish smirk.

Espo just sends his partner a glare over his shoulder. "Stay focused and get out there." Sorenson says, turning Espo around by the shoulder and pushing him out the front of the van.

Espo shakes his head and puts himself into another mindset as he saunters out of the delivery van with the package under his arm, swinging his arm and humming to himself as he walks down the driveway of the rural household. He looks intently through the windows, but only sees drawn shades. _Remember the plan,_ he thinks to himself as he reaches the door. He rings the doorbell, then knocks on the door rapidly with his knuckle. When he hears the door start to open, he catches sight of the rest of the team making their way around the side of the house, waiting for his word.

The door opens and he sees the large, portly man, a scraggly beard underneath his large chin and thinning hair. "He-hello?" He says in a small voice, not opening the door all the way and just looking at Espo through the crack in the door.

"What's up, my man?" He greets in a happy tone. "Got a package for a..." He starts, looking down at the package, "Wanda Sterling?"

Tony nods his head and looks down. "Yes, that's-that's my sister. I'll take it."

"Just need you to sign, my man." He says, holding the clipboard out. The door finally opens and Espo looks passed him and into the house, not seeing anything or anyone in the living room or what he can see of the kitchen. Tony takes the clipboard and clicks the pen open. "These for your son?"

"Wh-what?" Tony asks as he's signing his name.

Espo holds up the box, just stuffed with crumpled up pieces of paper. "It's toys."

Tony squits for a moment before nodding his head and looking down. "Yeah, my sister just got her son back." Tony said and took the box. "She's-she's sleeping right now, I'll give this to her later."

"Alright, my man." Espo says with a smile. "You have a nice day." He says and turns as the doors closing. Esposito stops, and unzips his brown jacket, tossing his wigged hat to the ground and pulling his gun. "Suspect is asleep, copy."

"Master bedroom is right next to where she's most likely keeping Henry. Get in and move quickly." One of the techs says into their earpieces.

"Execute, execute!" He hisses into his mic just before he throws his foot forward and tosses his weight against the door, kicking the front door in. " _NYPD, get down!"_ Esposito shouts with his gun pointed at Tony.

" _FBI! Wanda Sterling!"_ Sorenson shouts.

" _Ah-ha-ha-ha!"_ Tony begins to cry in terror as he balls up on the floor.

Ryan goes up to Tony with his gun drawn in one hand and a pair of handcuffs in the other. They hear a door open on the other side of the house and they all turn to move. Ryan looks up to Espo as he's cuffing Tony, who's still sobbing in fear. "Go, I got him."

Espo quickly moves down the hall, following Sorenson with their guns drawn. "Wanda Sterling, FBI." Sorenson says as he enters the room at the end of the hall.

When Esposito comes up behind him, he feels a fear grip his chest at the sight of Wanda hunched over, pointing a snub-nosed revolver at them, with Henry pulled against her legs, her arm wrapped around his chest. "Get away. Go away!" Wanda says.

"Wanda, put the gun down." Sorenson says as Espo comes up next to him, his gun trained on the woman holding Henry.

"Uncle Javi!" Henry says excitedly.

"Be quiet, Jake!" Wanda hisses.

"Wanda, that's not Jake." Sorenson says.

"You okay, Henry?" Esposito asks Henry.

" _Shut up!"_ Wanda shouts, pulling Henry violently against her, waving her gun at them.

"Wanda, let the boy go. Now." Sorenson warns her again.

"Harold. He sent you, didn't he? My husband sent you to steal Jake from me again, didn't he, that bastard."

"That's a naughty word, lady." Henry says, looking up at Wanda.

"Wanda, your husband didn't steal your son from you. You know that. He left because you hurt him. He told you to stay away. You were there in the courtroom. You remember the judge telling you that you could only have supervised visits with your son." Wanda's gun shakes in her hand as she moves it between Sorenson and Esposito. "You remember that, don't you?"

Wanda's eyes flood with angry tears. "I was a good mother! Harold doesn't know what I had to do! I was a good mother to Jake!"

"Only terrible parents have to say they weren't terrible parents." Esposito mutters to himself.

"Let- the boy- go, Wanda." Sorenson says pointed.

"No... no, he's mine." Wanda says, her gun still shaking in her hand. Espo narrows his eyes and lines up the sights on his gun. "And you're not taking him."

Wanda's hand moves and puts the gun to Henry's head. "No!" Sorenson calls out.

A shot rings out.

* * *

Kate sighs as she paces slowly across the bullpen. It's been three hours since they left and they still haven't heard anything. Rick keeps trying to come back from caffeine crashes with more caffeine, not wanting to rest until they have Henry back. But she got her rest, her body demanded it. So now, she's restlessly pacing her way across the quiet bullpen. She pushes out another sigh, uncrosses her arms, and moves out of the bullpen and toward her office.

When the elevator doors open, she looks over and stops, her entire body jolting with excitement. " _Rick!"_ She screams toward the break room.

Holding his uncle's hand with a smile, still in the same red jacket she dressed him in yesterday morning, Henry follows Esposito out of the elevator by the hand. Once he sees his mother, Esposito lets him go as he makes a mad dash toward her.

"Henry!" Kate says with tears flowing out of her eyes, kneeling down with outstretched arms. Henry runs into her, throwing his arms around her neck as she wraps him up tightly in her arms, pressing her cheek into her son's hair. "Oh, my baby." She says, squeezing him tightly, her heart aching with emotion. She holds Henry tightly against her and stands up, taking Henry in her arms while he buries his face into her shoulder just as a pair of loud footsteps comes storming up behind them. Kate turns with Henry in her arms to face her husband, who's looking over at the little boy still hugging his mother's neck tightly.

"Henry!" Rick says with a smile flashing across his face. He steps forward and puts one hand on Henry's head, petting him softly, while the other hand lands on his wife's shoulder.

Kate puts a hand on the side of Henry's head and pulls him back, looking down into his eye's bright blue eyes. "You okay? Are you alright?" She asks in a scared voice.

"Yeah, my ears hurt." Henry says nonchalantly, nodding his head. Kate's heart explodes at the sound of her gummy bear's voice.

"Your ears hurt?" Rick asks, petting his son's hair back.

Henry looks up with a smile and stretches out his arms toward his dad. "Hi, Daddy." Henry says and wraps his arms around Rick's neck. Kate feels hot tears burn in her eyes at the sight of Henry hugging his father, her husband. Rick takes Henry in his arms tightly, hugging him in a tight hug as Henry lays his head down on his father's shoulder. Kate steps forward and puts a hand on Henry's back, rubbing him lovingly. Rick looks up at her with a watery smile and pulls her into his side. Kate doesn't hesitate to step into his side and lay her head down against his temple, both of them looking down at their son.

Henry leans back with a smile. "I missed you." Henry says.

Kate chokes back a happy sob, reaching up and petting Henry's cheek with her thumb. "We missed you too, gummy bear."

"You okay, little man? Did they hurt you?" Rick asks.

"No, my ears hurt though." Henry says, holding one hand up to his ear.

"Why do your ears hurt, gummy bear?" His mother asks just before looking passed him and over to Esposito and Ryan, who both have sappy smiles on their faces. "What happened?"

"Well-" Esposito starts but is cut off by the sound of the elevator doors opening again. They all look over and see a pair of uniforms leading out a woman with her arm in a sling, a ragged, pale expression on her face. Kate feels herself harden as Henry crawls into her arms again, hugging her neck. In an ankle length, dark green skirt and a pale, old looking blouse, a tired, angry looking woman is lead passed them, her eyes glassed over. Instinctively, Kate feels her gut twist with hatred, her heart hardening at the sight of this woman, responsible for causing her so much pain and anguish, for putting this perfect, innocent little three-year-old boy through all this.

Sorenson steps up next to Esposito and Ryan. "She drew on him and Esposito took a shot."

Kate pulls Henry closer to her, sending a look toward Esposito. "You took a shot at my son?!"

"Bullet went through and through. She was getting ready to pull the trigger, Beckett." Esposito defended.

"It was one hell of a shot." Sorenson says as he starts passed them and into the bullpen.

But Henry is calling him out before he makes it. "That's a naughty word, mister!" Henry says with a pointed finger at Sorenson.

Kate feels a smile light up her face, her hardened heart and cold emotions falling away in an instant at the sight of her son's antics. "That's right, Henry." Kate says, leaning Henry back into his father's side while she looks over at Sorenson, who's looking back at them with a straightened brow. "Agent Sorenson said a naughty word."

"I think," Rick starts, stealing Henry from his mother, "we should have Uncle Javi and Uncle Kevin give Agent Sorenson a time out for us, while we take you home. What do you say, little man?"

"Can we have smorelets again?" Henry asks, looking between his mom and dad.

Kate smiles, biting her lip. She reaches up and pets Henry's thick hair. "Smorelets all around."

* * *

Kate shifts in bed, stirring herself awake. Her sleepy eyes squint open when she feels an unfamiliar blockade between her and her husband. She shifts in bed once more before reaching up and pulling the covers back. When the blockade shows itself, a smile shines across her face. She looks over to Rick's sleeping face and reaches over, shaking his shoulder. "Rick." She shakes him awake, "Rick, look."

Rick lets out a breath and looks down, smiling. "Yeah, he snuck in here about an hour ago." He whispers.

Kate smiles and bites her lip again, looking down at Henry, who's breathing softly, laying down on his stomach with Ozzy tucked under his arm, his adorable face pressed cutely into the space between their pillows. Kate gently reaches down and runs her finger along his forehead, brushing his hair back. This feels even more heartwarming than she thought it would. "He's so adorable." She whispers, laying her head back down.

Rick yawns, "Takes after his dad."

Kate rolls her eyes and rubs Henry's back as he sleeps. "These past two days have been the worst of my entire life." She says softly, looking over to her half-awake husband after a moment. "And I never would have gotten through it if it wasn't for you.'

Rick smiles softly, "Could have fooled me."

Kate scoffs to herself, rolling her eyes again. "No, I... I mean it, Rick. You and Henry," She says, looking back down to the softly snoring three-year-old laying in between them, "you're my whole life. And... when I lost Henry, I..." She trails off, looking back up to him. She kisses her fingers and reaches over, putting them against his jaw, holding it there. "I love you." She says softly, caressing his cheek with her thumb. "Both of you."

Rick smiles and pets her forearm. "I love you two, too." His eyes them go down and he reaches over Henry, poking her stomach. "And you two." He says to their unborn twins.

Kate feels a large smile pull at her lips. "Hey, Rick?" She asks in a whisper.

"Yeah?" He whispers back.

"You think the bed is big enough to fit two more?"


	14. Epilogue

_A/N: Serendipity is smiling upon me as I post this last chapter of this wonderful story. I guess, today marks the anniversary of Rick and Kate's wedding on the show. Funny how things like this work._

 _Anyway, this is the epilogue, which is set on... well... read and find out. Loved writing this story, and I've had this epilogue in my head a very long time. So, let me know what you think. I might post one more new story, or at least the first chapter of it and see how it's received. It would be a pre-caskett total (or semi) AU. But, I would just post one chapter, see the reaction, and then decide to continue. So, be on the look out! :)  
_

* * *

"Now, _that..._ is genius." Henry says over a mouthful of food, pointing his fork at his father.

"What'd I tell ya, son?" Rick asks with a smirk, lifting his arms in the air out by his sides on the other side of the island before slinging the hand towel over his shoulder.

Ellie comes out of the dining room with her empty plate. "Daddy, can you and Henry please not use me and Aaron as guinea pigs for your breakfast experiments?" The twelve-year-old asks rhetorically, giving her father a raised brow and pursed smile that perfectly rivals her mother.

"Come on, Elle, I liked it." Aaron says, following his sister into the kitchen. "What's the point of building a road to nowhere, after all?"

Henry chuckles as he picks up another piece of their newest experiment, and Ellie is spinning around to call her twin brother out on his usual nonsense pretty quickly. "We're not talking about building anything, Aaron. We're talking about Henry trying to feed us things that aren't supposed to go together!"

"Well, it can't be Ma." Henry says with food still in his mouth before he swallows it. "She won't eat anything on Saturday morning breakfast unless she's there to watch it get made."

"That's because Mom seems to be the only voice of _reason_ in this house." Ellie argues, arguing with her older brother before moving around the island where Henry is sitting, still clad in her usual sleepwear; that of one of her father's t-shirts, oversized and heavy on her thin frame. Rick looks up with a smirk as he moves things around on the stove, seeing Ellie sitting back down at the table with Aaron, and Henry still sitting at the island, finishing up the leftovers from everyone else.

It's just a second after Ellie's arguing that Rick sees his wife come out of the living room with a smile. "Oh, come on now, Ellie. There's a time for a voice of reason..." She says, lifting her hand. She comes to stand next to Henry, leaning against the back of his stool with a smirk, "then there's a time to just say 'what the heck?'"

Rick looks over to the twins, who are still sitting at the table. "That's what she said when we got married."

Henry chuckles heartedly and Ellie and Aaron belt out a laugh as Kate shifts her weight and looks over to her eldest son. "Henry, I need you to make sure Ellie and Aaron make it home from your grandma's tonight."

Henry groans quietly to himself as he scraps his fork across his plate. "Come on, Ma. I'm going to the game with Grandpa this afternoon, then I'm supposed to meet Jennifer at Remy's. I thought Alexis was supposed to watch them this weekend anyway?"

"Alexis can't pick them up. She got called into her pediatrics office this morning and won't get off until seven. So, I need you to pick them up and make sure they get home alright, okay?" She asks, somewhat seriously.

"Ma," Aaron starts from the table, causing Kate to look over to her youngest son with a raised brow, "me and Ellie can make it on our own. We'll be fine."

"See? They'll be fine." Henry says, waving his fork at his little brother.

"Henry," Kate warns seriously, "you're picking them up from your grandmother's at six. No excuses, okay?"

"Ma, what could _possibly_ happen? Grandma lives like... eight blocks from here." Henry challenges. He's had his heart set on going to Remy's with Jen tonight.

But his mom isn't having any of it. She just stares him down with a lidded gaze and pursed lips, one hand planted firmly on her hip. And it takes only a second for sixteen-year-old to feel her deadly gaze fall on him. He looks over his shoulder with a slight fear, knowing that look all too well. "That's coming from _you,_ of all people in this house?"

Henry just rolls his eyes and waves his fork at her, dismissing her with a half-smile. "Ma, I was three years old. I don't even remember that. Oh," Henry says, looking at his father, who's watching the scene unfold with anticipation. Henry points his fork at his father again with a smirk, "spicy Cheetos, queso, sausage, in a breakfast burrito."

"Now, _that_ is genius." Rick says and quickly spins around to the cupboards.

Henry smiles and crinkles his eyes, the smile of his father shining through as his annoyed mother digs her fingers into the top of his head and turns him to look at her. "Well, _I_ remember every second of it. You're picking them up, that's final."

Henry sighs heavily and pushes his plate forward, crossing his arms and leaning forward, brooding. Kate comes around the island to stand next to her husband, running her hand down the back of his arm. "Jennifer will understand, son." Rick says.

Kate can clearly tell the blush that flares up in her sixteen-year-old's face. Kate fights her smile but has to bite her lip when she looks over and sees Ellie and Aaron already gearing up. "Oh, Jennifer!" They call in unison and move from the table to out in the space behind him.

Henry just crosses his arms tighter and lowers himself, embarrassed. "Oh, Jennifer, you're the lightbulb to my lighthouse." Ellie says in a mocking tone, clasping her hands together and sashaying herself. "You're the air in my lungs. You're the comb that straightens my tangled up life!"

Kate looks up to her husband, who's smirking to himself. "Why does that sound like something you'd say?" She asks him quietly.

"Because I'm the one that told him to say it." He replies softly.

"You know what they say, big brother." Aaron starts, coming up to his big brother's side, putting a hand on his arm in support. "Love is like an onion. The more you peel away its layers, the more it stinks."

Ellie scoffs behind the two of them, rolling her eyes. "You have any more insights for us, Nostradamus?"

"Just one." Aaron says, turning around and facing his twin sister. "That _you_ say the same things about Paul, in science class."

Ellie groans and stomps over around the island to her dad's unoccupied side. "Daddy, can you please tell Aaron that Paul is a loser?"

Rick is quick to pull his daughter into his side, snuggling her lovingly. Ellie hugs her dad's waist and pouts. "Well, sweetie, no one will ever be good enough for my beautiful little girl." Ellie sighs and presses her face into her dad's side and Rick continues to rub his daughter's arm, her long, softly curly hair going past her shoulders, the spitting image of her mother.

"And love is not that bad, Aaron." Kate corrects him with a shake of her head. "I mean, I love you." Kate says, leaning into her husband's side, looking at the joker of the family. "And I love your sister," She says, looking down at the twelve-year-old version of herself, "and I love your big brother," She continues, looking over the counter to her eldest son, who is becoming more and more like his father every day. "And I love your dad." She finishes, looking up at her husband with a gleam in her eye, seeing him look down at her with a smile.

"Yeah..." He starts. "Love isn't all that bad, Aaron." He says, pulling his wife in with his unoccupied arm. "After all, it was love at first sight for your mom and I."

"Eh-" She stops him, putting a hand on his chest, "don't lie."

"I'm not lying!" Rick defends himself, hearing Henry snicker. When Kate sends him a deadpan stare, he caves. "Alright, fine. I'm _embellishing_ a little."

"Embellishing is just lying with a different hat on, Dad." Aaron says, climbing up onto the stool next to Henry.

"So, you didn't just... automatically know, Mom?" Ellie asks, from the opposite side of her father.

"No, sweetie, it took some time." She says. "I mean, at first, your dad and I did have our differences, but-"

"They hated each other." Henry chimes in with a smirk, looking at his parents. Ellie and Aaron laugh, but his mom and dad look at him with raised brows. He just casually shrugs his shoulders. "Alexis told me."

"We had our share of differences, but... to answer your question, princess," Rick says, "no, there was no moment when I realized I was in love with your mother. Instead," He starts and looks over to his wife, "what I had was a moment when I realized I had already been in love with her for a long time."

"Yeah," Kate says softly, smiling up at her husband.

Henry watches the two of them and shakes his head again. They had better get out of here fast. They're probably in a hurry to get their weekend away together started. "So, Ellie," Kate starts, "no. You're father and I never had that bolt of lightning. So, I wouldn't worry too much about Paul, okay?"

Ellie just blushes and buries her face into her dad's side again, hugging him. "Oh, me neither." Rick says and hugs his daughter again. "He doesn't deserve you anyway."

Ellie leans back with a proud smile, "Right." She squeezes her father's side one last time before skipping her way out of the kitchen. "Thanks, Daddy."

"Always, princess." Rick says with a bright smile as the kids move upstairs to get dressed.

But when the kids are all upstairs, Kate tugs at the sides of his flannel shirt. "Rick, why are you always telling her that?" She asks softly. "She's never gonna have a healthy relationship if-"

"I tell her that as often as I can because I'd much rather have her grow up hearing it from her father than have her go find strangers to tell her that don't really mean it." He says, in a low, serious tone. "I tried to do the same thing with Alexis when she was growing up, but-"

"Yeah, Eric treats her like a queen, Rick. So, what's-"

"She ran off and moved in with a boy named after a math problem, Kate." He says with a lowered brow. "Now," He starts again, leaning back, "I know that _you_ look upon your 'wild child' phase with fond memories, but you have told me things that would peel the _paint_ off the walls in polite conversation."

"Wha..." She says, staggering, "well, what about the boys?" She says, waving her hand and leaning against the counter. "I mean, you weren't exactly the patron saint of good behavior."

"Why do you think the times I was hardest on the boys was when they disrespected you?" He asks her, narrowing his eyes. "I try to be the father I know I needed when I was growing up, Kate. Which is why I told Henry to fear Jennifer's father first, and me second when it comes to their flowering relationship."

Kate nods, taking her husband's words seriously. They've had this conversation before, when they've had to discipline the kids, but Rick's been reassuring Ellie a lot lately. It isn't until now that he's told her why. "And Ellie?" She asks.

"You really want to hear stories like yours come out of your daughter's mouth one day, Kate?" He asks, raising his brow.

It's then that the kids start down the stairs, Ellie first, Aaron second, followed by Henry. "Ellie?" Kate calls her over.

"Yeah, Mom?"

"Come over here, sweetie." She says, waving her over.

Her beautiful daughter comes to stand in front of her with an expectant smile. "Yeah?"

Without warning, Kate steps forward and wraps her arms around her, pulling her safely against her, rubbing her arms. "You know I love you, right?"

"Uhm..." Ellie starts and reluctantly hugs her mother back, "yeah, Mom. I know."

"Do you love me too?"

"Yes, Mom. I love you, okay?" She asks.

"Oh, say it like you mean it."

Ellie chuckles and hugs her mother tighter. "I love you, Mom." She says lovingly.

Kate smiles brightly and squeezes her daughter one more time, then pushes her back. "And Ellie?" She says again, putting her hands up and framing Ellie's face, holding her attention sternly. "If you ever come home with a tattoo... I'm going to kill you."

Ellie knits her brow and grins. "Okay, Mom, whatever you say."

"Okay, I love you, sweetie. Tell Grandma I said hi, okay?" She says as Ellie moves around the counter to meet her brother's at the door.

"Yeah, bye, Mom. Bye, Daddy." Ellie waves with a smile and moves out the open door.

"Bye, princess." Rick says with a smile. Then, Rick turns around and faces his wife, jumping his brow as the door closes.

"So, uh..." Kate starts, stepping forward and grabbing the sides of his shirt again. "What you were saying before about Ellie... you think you're not good enough for me?"

Rick smiles softly, "Not by a long shot." He says with a shake of his head.

"Oh, really? And uh... seventeen years of marriage is... what, exactly?" Kate asks with an open smile.

"One of the greatest flukes the universe has ever made."

"Oh, yeah?" She asks and leans forward, her eyes darting down to his lips.

"Yeah," He moans softly and leans in.

But they both jump apart at the sound of the door opening, with Aaron poking his head in. "Hey, Ma? Alexis is still gonna be here tomorrow too, right? I don't want to be left alone with Henry and Ellie after a night with Alexis."

"Yes, sweetie. Alexis will be here until we get back tomorrow night," She says, then starts to call out into the hall, "but that in no way means that your siblings are to pick on you!"

"Glad I'm still not the end piece to the bread loaf, Ma." Aaron says and closes the door.

Kate chuckles, "That is so your son." She says to her husband. When she looks back up at him, she feels the pull instantaneously, and quickly begins to give in, leaning forward to capture his lips.

But then, the door is opening again, and they jump apart again. This time, Rick sends out an audible groan and lets his head fall as Ellie is poking her head in. "Hey, Mom? Were you serious about the whole no tattoo's thing?"

"I don't want to see so much as a rub-on tattoo. Are we clear?"

Ellie chuckles and shakes her head. "Bye, Mom." She says and closes the door.

"Ugh..." Rick sighs heavily and leans in. But after just a second, he feels the tension in his body vanish at the sound of the door opening behind him.

This time, with Henry poking his head in, "Hey, Dad?"

"That's it! The next child to come through that door gets sent to military school!" Rick shouts over his shoulder.

But Kate soothes over his chest and looks over his shoulder at Henry. "What is it, Henry?"

Henry just smiles the smile of his father, "Happy Anniversary, you guys."

When the door closes, Kate feels an all too familiar twinge in her heart. She nods stiffly before craning her neck and looking down to the floor. It's a long moment of silence before Rick is calling out to her. "You still think about it?"

Kate looks up to her husband and nods her head sheepishly. "Every time they walk out that door." She admits.

Rick sighs heavily, "It was the worst two days of our lives." He says in a faraway drawl.

Kate nods, her mind swirling around in those panic, fear-filled two days all those years ago. After a moment, her hands move up her husband's arms and wrap around his neck as she shakes her head and looks up to him with a smile. "The lake house is waiting, Rick."

"Is it ever." He says, snaking his arms around her waist. "Happy Anniversary, Kate."

Kate smiles brightly, leaning forward and capturing his lips in a sweet, lingering kiss, chasing after him when he pulls away with another quick, stolen peck. "Happy Anniversary, Rick."

 _ **END**_


End file.
